Sistah Space under investigation

[northernladuk]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...legations.html

Dunno about anyone else but this was the first thing I thought would happen as soon as the story broke. Had a look around and other articles and it appears over 40% of small charities are not submitting their finances for one reason and another and the Charities Commission investigation pages make for some grim reading. I'm sure looking at the murky end of all this gives me a rather jaded view and I'm not focussing on the good that a decent charity could do but this type of story seems to crop up all too often along with all the investigations that don't hit the news.

Is this not a surprise to anyone else or is it just me that's bitter and twisted?

[ladymuck]

A lot of small charities aren't well run. Mostly it's not because of any intentional wrong doing, it's just that people kick off something that's important to them but actually lack the skills to properly run the financial side. I think if local/national governments are to fund charities in lieu of providing the services themselves then they ought to do due diligence on them and offer support if they need help with best practice governance.

[quackhandle]

I was bored doing documentation last night so there is a guy called "James" @JustPikachoo on twatter who has looked into Sistah Space (beware v long thread) and it doesn't look good for them, lots of grants being awarded to them (inc £60k from Comic Relief) but nothing to show for it, and lots of name changes from the same person, and also hiking up products they got for free to sell to the people they are supposed to be protecting.

qh

[Dark Black]

So... where are they really from?

[d000hg]

So, Sistahs are doing it for themselves?

Bit odd that they get the royal family in trouble and immediately come under heavy scrutiny. Almost like there could be a link.

[northernladuk]

So, Sistahs are doing it for themselves?

Bit odd that they get the royal family in trouble and immediately come under heavy scrutiny. Almost like there could be a link.

Hee hee. Yeah you could think that but I'm sure there isn't. Just another (possibly) poorly run charity that's been coasting along because the CC haven't the resources to look at them all and now they've hit the news the facts, which were probably already out there, get more scrutiny.

It's like the Kids Company. Many people didn't a clue about all this until a sensational story came out about abuse within the org and the focus naturally came round to their finances for which there was a lot of noise/suspicion out there already. I'll bet you could throw the head of many of these micro charities in to the limelight and the can of worms would get opened.

It's a good story that you piss of the royalty and 3 weeks later you are in trouble though, just like the good old days of yore but not in this case.

[SueEllen]

So, Sistahs are doing it for themselves?

Bit odd that they get the royal family in trouble and immediately come under heavy scrutiny. Almost like there could be a link.

Captain Sir Tom Moore's charity got in trouble almost immediately after they were set up due to it's high profile.

Basically if you are high profile keep your nose clean if you are setting up or running a charity.

[BlasterBates]

Just to note it's only a Daily Mail investigation not an official one:

The watchdog has not announced an official investigation or inquiry into Sistah Space.

[NotAllThere]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...legations.html

Dunno about anyone else but this was the first thing I thought would happen as soon as the story broke. Had a look around and other articles and it appears over 40% of small charities are not submitting their finances for one reason and another and the Charities Commission investigation pages make for some grim reading. I'm sure looking at the murky end of all this gives me a rather jaded view and I'm not focussing on the good that a decent charity could do but this type of story seems to crop up all too often along with all the investigations that don't hit the news.

Is this not a surprise to anyone else or is it just me that's bitter and twisted?

It's not a surprise and you're bitter and twisted.

[edison]

A lot of small charities aren't well run. Mostly it's not because of any intentional wrong doing, it's just that people kick off something that's important to them but actually lack the skills to properly run the financial side. I think if local/national governments are to fund charities in lieu of providing the services themselves then they ought to do due diligence on them and offer support if they need help with best practice governance.

This is often the case with charities in the early days. It's difficult to find volunteers to work in finance roles for example. A friend of mine set up a small charity initially backed by a wealthy individual benefactor. She had all sorts of challenges in the early days as she was left to run a lot of their operations without enough support.