C.E. Jottings

In defence of the amateur tradition on charity boards

When did the word "amateur" acquire such strong negative connotation? In The Times a week or so ago, the headline to a Philip Collins' opinion piece states "These amateurish charities aren't fit for purpose". And in The Guardian the day before an Editorial headline ran "The Guardian view on charity trustees: no role for amateurs". These confident assertions arise from the Kids Company débâcle. Yet if there was one thing that the Board of Kids Company was not, it was... Read more →

Stayin' Alive! Who cares? Friends do. We all need friends.

Loneliness kills. In that two-word summary, is the essence of a new study from Brigham Young University. With an ageing population, isolation among the elderly is becoming an ever more serious matter. Life or death. The downloadable study, published in the journal PLoS Medicine, finds that a lack of social relationships is as bad as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being an alcoholic and is more harmful than not exercising or obesity. I, of course, think immediately of adults... Read more →

No longer Keeping Kids Company. What were the Board of Trustees thinking? Are there lessons for all Trustees and all charities?

Are there lessons to be learned by all charity Trustees in the collapse of Kids Company? I have been interested in the fate of Kids Company since the recent publication of the fact that in 2003 HM Revenue and Customs wrote off almost £600,000 in unpaid national insurance contributions in return for a deal that Kids Company paid up just £100,000. This was a staggering deal, maybe even unprecedented. The Chair of Trustees, Alan Yentob, also Creative Director at the... Read more →