@SaintLeo where would they stand in terms of third party fundraisers? Do they need to declare what was made etc?
Also, the aims and objectives of their charity has not been clear and has changed? Also the money has not be used as intended according to the go fund me, what position does that put them in?
They don’t have to make any public declarations about any fundraising amounts regardless of how the money has come in. While most charities are reliant on donations from members of the public, those donations are the choice of the people making them. No one is obliged to give money to any charity so therefore they’re not classed as publicly funded in the way the NHS, schools, police etc. The only obligation to disclose details about money is the annual accounts. Obviously lots of charities do go above and beyond that but that’s their choice to do so and not because of any regulations.
I’ve not paid enough attention historically to know what the original purpose of TAF was when it was set up but the current mission on the website does align with the charitable objectives on the CC website. Support for research could still be classed as meeting “the needs of children suffering from cancer”. There’s nothing to say support has to be to individuals, it could be to all or groups of children with cancer which would cover donations to hospitals or researchers.
My question for TAF would be not whether they’re doing work that matches their objectives, but are they doing enough of it or are they just sitting on a big pot of cash? Again until we can see the accounts hard to say. They could be doing lots quietly behind the scenes - very unlikely I know! Charities are expected to have reserves so that they can continue their work if they’re having short term income issues but for a charity like TAF that shouldn’t need to be a huge amount - they don’t have many staff, no overheads like offices, shops etc so the running costs should be pretty minimal. They probably shouldn’t be sitting on 6 figure sums. If they are this might be something the CC question but they’re more like to offer support to look at the charities policies and practices than anything else.
In terms of the GFM I don’t know enough about how they regulate their site to comment to be honest. The GFM was done by Ashley & Saffiya as prívate individuals and not as TAF so it wouldn’t come under the reach of the CC. Raising concerns with GFM about donations not being used as intended might be the only way to tackle that one but I’m guessing people have already tried that and not got far?
