How did charities do in the recent election?

The  Charity Commission recently published a  summary of its casework in the run up to the General Election. Here is the Mills & Reeve 2 minute guide.

Key takeaways:

• Charities have the right to campaign, provided they remain neutral.
• The Commission was a ‘proactive regulator’ in the pre-election period, responding to 35 requests for advice. Their General Election landing page was visited 6,000 times. The 5 minute guide made the rules accessible to all types of trustee.
• There has been a marked improvement in charities' campaigning, with a 60% reduction in compliance cases. The 34 new compliance cases arose from public complaints, serious incident reports by charities and Commission investigation. This improvement may be due to a longer run up period rather than previous snap elections.

What problems arose?

The guidance sets out various case studies which make useful reading.

• A chair of trustees endorsing a political party and candidate, with severe consequences – remember our motto “policies not parties”.
• Candidates visiting charity premises and taking advantage of the charity for political ends.
• Social media use – a satirical Just Giving page was set up to raise funds following Rishi Sunak’s admission that he grew up without Sky TV. How the intended recipient charity should handle the risks.

The upside is that where issues arose, charities were quick to respond to the Charity Commission.

It is really encouraging to read that “Charities have a valuable role to play in raising awareness of and encouraging debate about issues that affect their beneficiaries and wider society. As long as they follow electoral law, and charity law as set out in our guidance on campaigning and political activity, charities should feel confident to carry out such activity.”

In a blog Orlando Fraser published at the same time, he explains that the Commission is setting the expectation that charities ‘model a better kind of discourse in our divided world’. When charities are direct targets, either physically or online, of the far-right hatred that recently flooded our country, this may neither be an easy or at times appropriate regulatory requirement.  

In September we will be releasing our next Charity newsletter which will delve deeper into making the most of the new opportunities presented by Kier Starmer’s government. To sign up to our newsletter, please ask your ususal Mills & Reeve contact.