A Christian charity has been found in breach of the fundraising code after being directly involved in drafting the will they would benefit from of a “vulnerable” charity supporter.
An employee of the Centrepoint Christian Church was found to have drafted the will for the vulnerable supporter, who “was under considerable physical and emotional strain, and was also caring for their dying partner”, according to their family member who made a complaint about the charity to the Fundraising Regulator.
This family member believed there was a conflict of interest due to the charity’s involvement in drafting the will, which was witnessed by a trustee of the charity. This family member believed this to be “unethical” and also complained about “the poor communication they experienced with the charity”.
The Fundraising Regulator said that the code “makes it very clear that charities must not draft or be directly involved in drafting of wills in their favour”.
It also found that at the time the West Bromwich based charity did not have policies or procedures in place to help charity staff identify and consider the needs of vulnerable donors.
The regulator notes that the charity has “accepted that they could have explored alternative courses of action, such as insisting that the donor obtained independent legal advice to assist them with the preparation of a new will”.
In addition, it found that “the charity was small and their experience of managing legacy donations was limited”.
“Since we received this complaint, the charity has taken appropriate remedial action which included the introduction of a new legacy policy,” said the regulator.
“In addition, it has strengthened its existing conflicts of interests policy to make it more comprehensive. We are satisfied the charity has acted proactively and taken the opportunity to learn from the complaint and strengthen its processes.”
The charity is recommended to take action to improve trustee awareness of conflicts of interest and charity governance and to develop a fundraising policy for vulnerable donors.
The Fundraising Regulator added: “The charity has accepted our findings and agreed to comply with our recommendations. We will continue to work with the charity to support the implementation of our recommendations.”
Centrepoint Christian Church has been contacted for comment.
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