Naomi Campbell’s fashion charity investigated over finances
Campbell created Fashion for Relief in 2005 to raise funds for children living in poverty and adversity around the world, and says it has raised millions over the years for good causes through its annual charity fashion show.
The Charity Commission is to examine whether Campbell and her fellow trustees “have properly exercised their legal duties and responsibilities under charity law”, and will investigate payments made by the charity to one of its trustees.
It will also look at the charity’s spending and the management of Fashion for Relief by its trustees, including potential misconduct and mismanagement and the failure to file statutory annual accounts on time.
Campbell is named as one of three trustees of Fashion for Relief, along with Bianka Hellmich and Veronica Sylvia Wing Wai Au Chou. All are listed as has having been trustees of the charity since 2015.
Fashion for Relief has for years held glitzy fashion events to raise money for its charity partners. In 2019, it partnered with Sadiq Khan’s Mayor’s Fund for London to support low-income youngsters with skills and training.
It held a London fashion week show in September that year at the British Museum featuring a fashion show, gala dinner and art auction. Celebrities attending included Campbell, Naomie Harris, Pierce Brosnan, Skepta, and Alexa Chung.
The charity’s website does not appear to say how much money was raised for the Mayor’s Fund, though it displays cuttings from Vogue, Elle and other fashion media with headlines such as Naomi Campbell is Saving the World One Fashion Show at a Time.
The charity is yet to publish its 2020 accounts, which are more than 178 days late according to the Charity Commission’s online register.
The charity’s last set of published accounts show that in the year to July 2019 it raised £1,722,000, most of it through sponsorships. According to the accounts, £1,606,000 of that was spent putting on a charity event and paying for PRs and other staff. Just £5,515 appears to have given to good causes.
The 2019 accounts also reveal unusually large trustee expenses. Hellmich was paid £77,000 in consultancy fees and £15,942 in travel expenses. The previous year, the charity spent £107,000 on trustees’ fees and £23,000 on expenses.
The Charity Commission for England has been in private discussions with Fashion for Relief for more than a year about what it called a “a range of regulatory concerns”, including late filing of accounts, potential conflicts of interests and weaknesses around financial controls.
The commission has now escalated what had been a compliance issue into a full inquiry – its most serious level of investigation – suggesting the regulator has been unable to satisfy its concerns.
Source: The Guardian
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