Charity most favoured by the UK’s biggest companies revealed

Third Sector’s ESG Focus market report analyses the social objectives and charitable activities of the 50 largest companies by market capitalisation listed on the FTSE 100 Index, as articulated in open company sources such as websites and sustainability reports.

The report assesses the extent to which companies’ sustainability goals are reflected in their charitable partnerships, with the aim of helping charities to identify suitable partners that share their mission and values.

It found that companies almost universally appear to be using their charitable partnerships to help fulfil their social objectives, at a time when pressure is growing on businesses to operate in more environmentally and socially sustainable ways and provide evidence that they are doing so.

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Kids Company judicial review case heard at the High Court

Michael-Karim Kerman, the former clinical director of the defunct charity, claims the Charity Commission’s inquiry report findings were irrational and contained “critical evidential gaps”.

The report, published in 2022, concluded that the charity, which closed abruptly in 2015, operated a “high-risk business model”.

The commission defended itself by saying Kerman was looking to inappropriately “immunise” the charity and its trustees against regulatory scrutiny. 

It came after the Coldplay singer Chris Martin, the actor Dame Joanna Lumley and the former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams were among a group of more than 50 people who backed an open letter calling for the commission to amend the findings of its report.

Cancer Research UK says £225,000 fraud was ‘deeply shocking’

Jane Brookes, 54 and of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, was charged with defrauding Cancer Research UK of £226,557 of donations intended for the charity between 2012 and 2022. 

She was found guilty of stealing the funds at a hearing at Worcestershire Crown Court earlier this month. 

Brookes initially pleaded guilty on the basis of stealing £6,000 but the prosecution rejected her plea. 

Simon Ledsham, director of relationship management at Cancer Research UK, said the charity had engaged an independent audit firm to conduct a review of its volunteer fundraising financial control environment due to the theft.

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