The interim manager of the Dove Trust is preparing to distribute some funds to the 1,810 charities and good causes that are out of pocket since the suspension of the fundraising website CharityGiving.

Pesh Framjee, appointed as interim manager by the Charity Commission in June this year, has confirmed that he is now preparing for an interim distribution of funds to affected charities, using the available cash assets of the Dove Trust.

The Charity Commission had previously stated that there is a shortfall of at least £250,000 between the funds due to the charities who had set up donations through CharityGiving, and the cash held by the Dove Trust.

During August Framjee was contacting beneficiary charities as part of the work to reconcile the Dove Trust’s accounts held in its donation management system.

Today he announced that the reconciliation work is successfully completed and he is satisfied that the Trust's records of what it owes charities for money collected through CharityGiving, are accurate.

“We are now comfortable with relying on the amounts showing on the Dove Trust’s systems, and will soon be ready to proceed to the next step in the process,” Framjee said.

“This reconciliation work is now complete - our thanks to the hundreds of charities that responded to our request for information.”

The next step is to release some funds to affected organisations. “As part of this, we will be verifying each charity and good cause and its bank account details,” he said.

Framjee revealed that he had identified over 4,235 fundraising pages which were collecting funds for 1,810 charities and good causes.

A spokeswoman for Crowe Clark Whitehill, where Framjee is a partner and head of not-for-profit, told civilsociety.co.uk that it was essential to make sure that the Dove Trust’s records matched what the affected organisations were expecting to get back.

“We were testing the records the Dove Trust had kept against what the charities were expecting,” she explained. “And since now their system has turned out to be valid, we can soon move onto the next stage: distributing the funds back to charities and causes.”

Further update soon

Framjee added that he would be providing another update soon to advise of timeframes and procedures for the interim distribution of funds. “We are aware that many charities are facing difficulties and we are working to make the interim distribution as quickly as possible,” he said.

CharityGiving was suspended in July. The charity had not filed accounts since April 2009, which prompted the Charity Commission to open a statutory inquiry into it back in 2011.

Framjee also said today that he has closed the Dove Trust's offices.