Further £3m given to Grenfell fire victims in past week, commission’s data shows

A total of £5.8m of the £19m raised has now been distributed, according to the regulator

An additional £3m has been distributed to victims of the Grenfell Tower fire in the past week, according to new data released by the Charity Commission.

Last week the commission announced that just £2.8m of the £19m raised for Grenfell Tower victims had been distributed to those affected.

But commission data released last night shows that £5.8m has now reached the people who need it, although that still represents less than a third of the money that has been raised so far.

The amount that has been given to distributors by groups fundraising for the Grenfell fire victims has also reached £9.2m – an almost £1.9m increase on last week’s total. 

The fire, which occurred in Kensington, west London, on 14 June, killed an estimated 80 people and left many more homeless.

The Charity Commission has also announced that initial payments to the next of kin of those who are believed or known to have died in the fire have been increased from £20,000 to £40,000.

Payments to those seriously injured at Grenfell have also been doubled from £10,000 to £20,000 per person.

The Rugby Portobello Trust will also distribute a £15,000 payment from the London Community Foundation to families from Grenfell Tower in the next few days, the commission said.

Of the funds raised so far, British Red Cross has sent £2.4m of the almost £5.8m it has raised to distributing organisations, and the Kensington & Chelsea Foundation has also sent £2.5m of its £5.8m.

The Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund and the London Community Foundation has sent £3.9m of the £6.2m it has raised to distributing organisations, the commission data shows.

Artists for Grenfell and the London Community Foundation have sent £316,000 of the £700,000 it has raised to distributing organisations, and Muslim Aid has sent £57,713 of its £177,803.

Of the distributing organisations, the London Emergencies Trust has given £1.8m of the £4.8m it has received to victims, and the Rugby Portobello Trust has got £3.3m of the £4m it has to those affected.

Direct distributions from the Kensington & Chelsea Foundation, Turn2us, Muslim Aid and the London Community Foundation have all been sent in full to victims of the fire.

Clement James Centre has distributed £58,482 of the £62,923 it has received to victims, and the National Zakat Foundation has handed out all of the £253,080 it has been given to Grenfell victims.

David Holdsworth, registrar of charities in England and Wales, said: “We are pleased that a further £3m has reached survivors and those affected by this terrible tragedy in the last week, and that further funds will be distributed in the coming days. Some challenges still remain but it is important that the charities continue to work with the community and that the remaining funds are made available to meet their short, medium and longer-term needs.”

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Most donors would not opt-in to future fundraising, research shows

Research by nfpSynergy found members of the public are suspicious of how charities use their data

Just 16 per cent of people would opt-in to being contacted about future appeals when donating to a charity, research by the consultancy nfpSynergy has revealed.

NfpSynergy conducted a set of focus groups in May this year to explore how the general public felt about the implications of the General Data Protection Regulation on charities and combined it with quantitative research from its quarterly public opinion tracking survey.

The GDPR is due to come into force in May 2018 and will require charities to prove that people have opted in to being contacted.

In a blog post published yesterday afternoon, Jo Fischl, head of public audiences research at nfpSynergy said the quantitative research had found that when people were asked to imagine they had just donated to their favourite charity and to fill out a consent form about the future use of the data.

Less than half (47 per cent) of respondents said they would opt in to hear more about what the charity did with their money, and only 16 per cent opted in to be asked to donate to future appeals.

Just 5 per cent said they would be willing to have their data shared with other, carefully chosen charities.

The research also found that in general the public believes that charities should be treated just as stringently as businesses if they break data-protection rules.

Fischl said the research shows the public unease about the use of data and demonstrated the vastness of the challenge of encouraging opt-in.

She said there was a tendency for people to feel that they are being taken for a ride by organisations over their data and that charities were not immune to such perceptions which creates “default position of suspicion when charities ask for personal data”.

She said that with donors reluctant to opt-in to contact, charities’ databases were likely to shrink and their incomes fall under GDPR.

Charities need to create a culture of transparency in order to navigate this, she said, in order to dispel the public’s suspicion and encourage them to donate.

The full report, GDPR – The Change That Charity Donors Want, is due to be made publically available in September.

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Under-45s more willing for their parents to leave legacies than expected, survey shows

Two-thirds wanted their parents to leave on average 16 per cent of their wealth to charity, Remember A Charity says

Two-thirds of people aged between 30 and 45 are willing for their elderly parents to leave considerable gifts to charity in their will, a survey by Remember A Charity has found.

In a survey of 1,000 adults aged between 30 and 45 and 1,000 adults aged over 65, Remember A Charity said that most of the younger generation surveyed said they would be happy with their parents donating on average 16 per cent of their estate to charity.

One in 10 people surveyed said they actively encouraged their parents to use their will to do social good, and 5 per cent said they wanted to see the full estate go to charity.

In comparison, the over-65s surveyed thought an average of 5 per cent of their estate should go to charity.

The survey found that these views were held despite the majority of under-45s claiming they worried about their financial future, accounting 83 per cent surveyed.

The survey also found that 67 per cent had scaled down their inheritance expectations, and only three in ten factor inheritance into their long-term financial planning.

Among the over-65s surveyed, 53 per cent said they were worried about their own finances, and 64 per cent said they were concerned about their children’s finances.

Rob Cope, director of Remember A Charity, said: “This study suggests a shift in attitudes between generations. The older generation is enthused about the concept of leaving a gift, but remains understandably anxious about the need to take care of their families.

“Meanwhile, the under-45s have become less expectant about receiving a sizeable inheritance. They are happy for their parents to make provisions in their will for all those things that matter to them, including good causes.”

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