In the news last week...

Minister urges larger charities to publicise how much Gift Aid they claim

Research by HM Revenue and Customs finds that £560m of Gift Aid goes unclaimed each year. HMRC concluded that a lack of understanding of how Gift Aid works and the benefits to charities, one of the biggest reasons why £560 million of potential donations does not reach charities, despite almost £1.3bn in Gift Aid being collected each year. Exchequer Secretary, Robert Jenrick will remind small charities by post about the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme and has said that ‘if larger charities voluntarily released information about the amount of Gift Aid they received each year it would demonstrate its role as a vital source of income for charities’.

Charity Finance Group’s Gift Aid awareness day is due to be held on 4 October 2018.

Should Oxfam lead a sector-wide inquiry into sexual misconduct?

Appearing at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Haiti yesterday, Brian Concannon, Executive Director of the Institute for Democracy and Justice in Haiti, said that although it was good Oxfam had launched an internal safeguarding commission, a sector-wide commission would have more impact. Nick Roseveare, Director of International Programmes at Oxfam, said there is a ‘strong case for Oxfam to try to play our part in trying to discover some of the right answers for the sector’ and there should be a sector-wide look at the issue of sexual misconduct in aid.

The charity’s internal safeguarding commission would probably report its findings in the next 12 months, Roseveare said, adding that Oxfam was open to ‘learning more’ about how it could strengthen safeguarding.