A cautionary tale of why this fundraiser won’t be donating money to this cause – yet.

There’s been huge excitement in the West Midlands region about the Staffordshire Hoard, and quite right too.   Now on view in London, the extraordinarily beautiful Saxon gold artefacts show that that the region’s illustrious history in making jewellery in precious metals did not just start with Matthew Boulton when he founded the Birmingham Assay Office in 1773.   There’s been much discussion about whether the 7th century golden haul should and/or could stay in the region, given it was discovered here and received its first public outing in Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG).

In fact, BMAG has already set up the Staffordshire Hoard Appeal.  I was interested in giving to the appeal, but, given it has not yet been confirmed that the Hoard will stay in Birmingham, wondered what would happen to my money if, for instance, the British Museum, felt that the collection should stay in the capital.  According to their website, my donation would be made to a restricted fund, the “City of Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Development Trust’s Staffordshire Hoard Appeal (registered charity no. 701785)”.

I was interested to know how BMAG had set up a charity quite so quickly, as it is – quite rightly – a regulated process, so put the registered charity number into the Charity Commission website, a fairly standard practice for fundraisers – and indeed fund givers – to check on a charity’s credentials.   What this showed me was that the charity, when I first looked pre-Christmas, was that it hadn’t filed its accounts with the Commission since 2005, and even today is 167 days late filing last year’s figures.  What this means is that I have no way of knowing whether this is a well-run charity, what their funding situation is at present, how much they spend on overheads, etc. 

Oh dear, not the best way to gain people’s trust, or money.

So the next time that you are struggling with your report and accounts, or your charity return, do remember the impact it has on potential donors. Until I can see these key performance indicators, I’m afraid that the Staffordshire Hoard won’t be getting any of my money.