If you’re involved in running a church or Christian charity it is surprisingly easy to find yourself on the receiving end of questions from the Charity Commission. Maybe an internal dispute has escalated and an employee or church member has made a complaint to the Commission. Sometimes an individual or organisation that is external to the charity finds something that concerns them, and calls on the Commission to investigate.
The Commission may publicise the fact that they are assessing whether or not they need to get involved. Even where that’s the case, however, they may simply decide that the concern is not well-founded and take no further action. If they do need to investigate further, they will usually start by contacting the charity’s trustees. How should you respond?
Here are our top tips:
- 1. Don’t panic! The Charity Commission is not intrinsically hostile to churches and Christian organisations. The Commission’s role is to make sure charities are being run properly, and that trustees are acting as they should. If someone raises a concern, they will need to find out whether or not something has gone wrong.
2. Find out the facts. Rather than sending a quick response, take time to check your answers against relevant internal documents – review emails, meeting minutes and social media posts to see what they actually say.
3. Check your deadlines. If the Commission has asked you to reply by a particular date, and you can’t do step 2 within that time, write back and request more time. Let the Commission know when you expect to be able to respond by.
4. If there are serious problems, admit them. You may need to file a serious incident report – search for the relevant pages on the Gov.UK website.
5. Engage with the Commission. Provide complete answers to the questions they have asked, with as much information as you have available. If you are evasive, or you fail to reply at all within the required timescales, the Commission will escalate the matter. They could then launch a formal inquiry. This means they can exercise a range of more serious powers in relation to how the charity operates. Depending on the outcome, they can also take steps to sanction trustees, such as prohibiting them from holding senior roles in the future.
6. Reflect on the outcome. Often these kinds of issues can be very stressful at the time, but a great way of improving things for the future. Perhaps they have highlighted ways in which your pastor may need more support or greater accountability. Or maybe you need to revisit your fundraising materials or financial controls, to steward the charity’s money well. There is often something helpful to learn from, and to change. Don’t let the same issue arise again, because the Commission would be much more concerned if they had to ask the same questions a second time.
7. Get help. If the things the Commission raises or that you discover give you cause for concern and you don’t know how to deal with them, get advice. Feel free to contact us about any of the issues raised in this article. Our lawyers are all evangelical Christians and work exclusively for churches and Christian organisations, meaning we have the experience and expertise to help you flourish.
