The former chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising “more likely than not” knew about a claim of sexual harassment or assault at one of its annual conventions and failed to act, a report has concluded. 

A long-running independent review into the CIoF’s handling of claims of sexual harassment and assault, carried out by Jedi Consultancy, found the membership body “failed in its responses to historical allegations of sexual harassment/assault”. 

In its findings, the report does not identify the organisation’s former leader by name, but says its references to “the former Chief Executive Officer” relate to the CEO who “left the CIOF in June 2021”. Peter Lewis served as chief executive of the IoF/CIoF from October 2011 until June 2021.

Lewis today said he did not accept the findings in the “biased and flawed ‘Jedi’ consultancy review”. 

The review, which was announced in August 2021 and published today, says new evidence led it to conclude that Lewis had been told about a claim of sexual harassment or assault at the CIoF’s annual convention in 2014. 

The exercise, which involved reviewing about 1,500 pages of evidence and interviewing more than 40 people, including CIoF staff past and present, was commissioned after the CIoF had faced repeated criticism over its handling of sexual misconduct complaints.

In March 2021, allegations surfaced on social media that the CIoF had been made aware of reports of sexual assault by one of its fellows at one of its own events and had failed to act.

The same month, Peter Lewis, its then-chief executive, announced plans to step down after almost 10 years in the role but denied that his departure was connected to the allegations.

Following an outcry from membership and fellows, the CIoF launched investigations into both its own handling of the issue and the sexual misconduct allegations themselves in June 2021. 

Days after he stepped down, the CIoF announced that the investigation conducted by the HR consultancy Tell Jane had “found no wrongdoing” by Lewis. The organisation later clarified that the investigation “was unable to find sufficient evidence” of a complaint having been made directly to Lewis over a specific incident in 2014, but did conclude that a complaint was probably made to someone at the CIoF.

The remaining investigation, which concluded in August 2021, upheld four allegations of sexual harassment against a CIoF fellow, who was not named, and found “clear organisational and governance failings” in “culture and processes”.

The Jedi Consultancy review, published today, says it did not attempt to make findings relating to specific incidents except into the disputed claims over whether Lewis was told about conduct by a third party at the CIoF’s annual convention in 2014 that could amount to sexual harassment or assault and had failed to act. 

Lewis, who left the CIoF in 2021, has always denied that he was told about the incident, but Jedi Consultancy’s report says a new witness came forward with evidence relating to the incident and an email emerged that had not been disclosed by the CIoF to Tell Jane as part of its inquiry. 

The report says this person witnessed and overheard the survivor telling Lewis about the allegations against the third party, referred to as P1. 

It goes on to say the email showed Lewis had referred to P1 as having been “inappropriate” at the 2014 convention. 

Lewis denied being informed about the incident at the time and told the investigation team he had “not been referring to sexually inappropriate behaviour but rather other unconnected behaviour that he deemed to be inappropriate”, the report says. 

It says: “We were not convinced by this explanation, given that the wider context of this email thread was about issues of sexual harassment, so it was unclear to us why he would be raising entirely unconnected issues of behaviour at this time. 

“Having carefully considered all the documentary evidence, tested the credibility of witness evidence and weighed all the relevant factors in the balance, we find that the events as described by the anonymous attendee of the 2014 convention, namely that she had told the former chief executive officer about allegations of sexual harassment/assault at the relevant time, are more likely than not to have occurred.”

The report goes on to say: “Having carefully considered all documentary evidence and tested the credibility of witness evidence and weighed the relevant factors in the balance, we find that it is more likely than not that CIoF did know that sexual harassment/assault was an issue at CIoF (as well as in the wider sector) at material times. 

“Accordingly, we find that CIoF failed in its responses to historical allegations of sexual harassment/assault.”

It also says: “The former chief executive officer and/or CIoF did know, or should have known, about other issues relating to sexual harassment/assault within the CIoF from late 2017 onwards.”

It says that, while the CIoF did take certain actions from 2018 onwards, the membership body “did not act reasonably promptly on the allegations that they had knowledge of at material times, particularly in the period up to 2018”. 

The report goes on to say the CIoF’s policies and processes have “substantially improved” since the Tell Jane investigation and the membership body is making good progress with the implementation of an action plan produced at the time.

“We have provided further advice to the CIoF to further improve these policies and processes,” the report says. 

Peter Lewis told Third Sector: “I do not accept the findings in the biased and flawed ‘Jedi’ consultancy review. 

“I have been clear throughout that no complaint or disclosure was ever made to me that I did not act on promptly.

“Under my leadership the CIoF took action, investigating complaints, changing the complaints process, employing Tell Jane, commissioning the learning review and developing the action plan which the CIoF has taken forward over the last three years.

“We did not get everything right, and once again, I offer my heartfelt apologies to anyone who has suffered harm.”

The CIoF today said it fully accepted the findings and recommendations of the review. 

Nadine Campbell, chair of the CIoF, said: “We are deeply sorry to those who experienced sexual harassment or assault, for failing in our responses to past incidents of such behaviour and for the subsequent distress and trauma this has caused those individuals.

“We fully recognise and accept that the CIoF has made mistakes which have resulted in our failure to protect and support people in our community and has unnecessarily prolonged the pain they have had to endure.” 

She said the organisation had “failed in a number of ways”, including a failure to demonstrate adequate concern or provide sufficient support for individuals “who made the very difficult decision to disclose to us what they had gone through.” 

Raggi Kotak, director of Jedi Consultancy, said: “We wish to thank those who had the courage to bring these painful issues to the fore. We recognise that this has come at huge personal cost.

“The CIoF has an important role in creating robust standards of safety and behaviour for the fundraising sector. We encourage them to continue to take bold and active steps forward, to ensure that issues of oppression are completely eradicated.”