Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity may keep the money it received from the Presidents Club, despite initially pledging to return it.
The charity said in a statement yesterday that it was considering its position on whether to return the money, following discussions with the Charity Commission and feedback from its supporters.
The Presidents Club charity ran into controversy after an undercover Financial Times investigation reported sexual harassment at its annual fundraising dinner. GOSH had said last month, when reports first broke about the dinner, that it would return donations it had received from the charity.
Although not receiving any money from the 2018 dinner, GOSH had benefited from previous fundraising dinners the Presidents Club had put on. The charity said that “due to the wholly unacceptable nature of the event we are returning previous donations and will no longer accept gifts from the Presidents Club Charitable Trust”.
Since the charity made that statement, the Presidents Club has announced it would not host any further fundraising events, and that remaining funds would be “distributed in an efficient manner to the children’s charities and it will then be closed.”
The charity was initially praised for taking a strong moral stance, but opinion polls have since found the majority of the public think GOSH should keep the money. Questions have also been raised about the ease of returning money to a charity that plans to close.
In a statement yesterday, GOSH outlined that it was undecided on what it would do with the Presidents Clubs money.
It said: “Guiding all our thinking is our aim to maximise the support to the hospital and the families it cares for. We can confirm that we are in discussions with the Charity Commission and are scheduled to meet them later this week.
“Following this meeting and taking into account the latest developments with the Presidents Club Charitable Trust and feedback from our supporters, we will consider our position at our March trustee meeting.”
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