Charities have shared concerns over money they say is owed to them by a fundraising company that stopped trading suddenly.
Good 2 Auction hosted silent auctions, gala dinners and other events to raise money for charities before recently closing.
Garden House Hospice Care and the Seashell Trust told Civil Society that they had not yet received the funds they expected from Good 2 Auction since it ceased trading.
Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice also said it had been affected by Good 2 Auction’s closure and had reported the matter to Action Fraud, the police and Charity Commission, which confirmed it had received a related serious incident report.
Good 2 Auction’s company status on Companies House remains active but its website has been taken down and founder Alan Lambert’s X and LinkedIn pages have been deleted.
The company’s LinkedIn page states that it has worked with a variety of other charities, including Cancer Research, Help for Heroes, Macmillan Support and more.
‘This devastating event is likely to hit us hard financially’
Carla Pilsworth, director of income generation at Garden House Hospice Care, told Civil Society that Good 2 Auction’s closure was “really upsetting” for the charity.
“We pride ourselves in running prestigious fundraising events and have previously worked with Good 2 Auction in the past with no issues at all,” she said.
“Sadly, following our gala dinner in March this year it was a different story.
“We have outstanding balances left to be paid by the now dissolved company.
“This will have a negative impact on our charitable income by tens of thousands of pounds this year.”
Pilsworth said its supporters had successfully bid on prizes at the gala dinner, for which the hospice was now working to reimburse them.
“We are currently working with our supporters to ensure they are reimbursed for the money they have personally lost through their banks and credit card providers.
“Unfortunately for Garden House Hospice Care, the impact of this devastating event is likely to hit us hard financially.”
‘We hope that we can recover some, if not all, money owed to us’
Marie Travers, director of fundraising, marketing, and communications at the Seashell Trust, told Civil Society that it worked with Good 2 Auction for the first time on its recent fundraising ball.
“We have little information at this time, so we do not yet know how or if we will be able to recover any of the money owed to us by Good 2 Auction,” she said.
“We are working with our legal advisors on how to proceed next.
“While any loss to a charity is devastating news, we also know that many of the auction prize winners will also not yet know whether they will receive their prize or not.
“And this to us is in some ways an even greater loss – our donors and supporters invested their money and trust and expected their donations to come to a charity they feel very passionately about.
“Perhaps even worse was that some of our supporters made donations through Good 2 Auction to go directly to support our children and young adults with the most complex needs.
“They did not do this to receive a prize and trusted the donation would reach us via Good 2 Auction.
“We hope that we can recover some, if not all, the money owed to us and would be happy to work with other charities affected, as well as the Fundraising Regulator, to make this happen.”
The charity said it has contacted the affected donors and told its other supporters.
Lambert has not yet responded to Civil Society’s request for comment.
