What happens when charities don’t spend their money on the things they are meant to?

Fashion For Relief was set up to provide humanitarian support.& Vianney Le Caer/Associated Press/Alamy Stock Photo by John Tribe, University of Liverpool Supermodel Naomi Campbell has been disqualified from acting as a charity trustee for five years by the UK regulator, after serious mismanagement was found to have taken place at Fashion For Relief. Campbell set up the charity in 2005; two other trustees, Bianka Hellmich and Veronica Chou, were disqualified for nine and four years respectively. While the charity was established to support humanitarian causes worldwide, apparently much of the money raised was spent on items including a luxury hotel, spa, security and cigarettes for Campbell. A mere 8.5% of its expenditure went towards charitable activity between 2016 and 2022. Campbell has since said she was “not in control” of the charity, and is investigating what had gone wrong. Misuse of charity funds could be driven by many factors, including charity trustees being out of their depth on technical compliance, or a failure to separate the personal finances of trustees from those of the charity. But whatever the motivation, using charitable donations for personal purposes is contrary to English and Welsh laws stretching back centuries. The focus of trustees...