Captain Tom: A Tainted Legacy?

~ beetleypete

Many readers will have heard about Sir Tom Moore, the WW2 veteran who raised £39,000,000 for NHS charities while walking around his own garden during the pandemic. He was feted and adored all over the world. I wrote about him on this blog, I signed a petition for him to be knighted, and my wife donated money to his charity. He sadly died in February 2021.

Since then, disturbing facts have emerged about the whereabouts of some of the money donated. It is currently managed by a charitable foundation, run by his daughter Hannah Ingram. Here she is with her father.

Hannah is a business recruitment officer, managing her own company, Maytrix, which has a focus on recruitment, brand development and training for companies.
She was the one who floated the idea that her father walk round the garden to celebrate his 100th birthday.
Following his death, his daughter set up her own charitable foundation, with the aim of continuing to receive funds and hoping to keep his legacy alive.

In its first year, running from 5 May 2020 to 31 May 2021, the foundation, which was set up to continue the national fundraising hero’s legacy, accumulated almost £1.1m in donations.

However, its audited accounts show just £160,000 was given away in charitable grants while £240,000 was spent on management and fundraising costs.
Of the costs, £126,424 was spent on “fundraising consultancy fees” and £20,884 was used in “advertising and marketing expenditure”.
Organisations that received the grants included the Royal British Legion, Mind, Willen Hospice, and Helen and Douglas House.
During the 12-month period, a combined total of more than £54,000 was also reimbursed to two companies controlled by Sir Captain Tom Moore’s daughter Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin, called Club Nook Limited and Maytrix Group Limited.

The documents state the payments were for “accommodation, security and transport” while the veteran travelled. They also included “website costs (£5,030), photography costs (£550), office rental (£4,500), telephone costs (£656) and third-party consultancy costs (£27,205)”.

By the end of May 2021, the charity had £695,889 in unrestricted funds and trustees said that maintaining reserves of around £500,000 would be “sufficient to ensure its ongoing commitments can be met”. “The foundation’s work is entirely reliant on donations. During this period our total income amounted to £1,096,526,” part of the document reads.”As a newly established charity, expenditure has been incurred in building the team, which for some months worked on a voluntary basis until funds were forthcoming.”During this period, we also incurred costs in appointing The Philanthropy Company who provided expert support on governance and fundraising initiatives as well as working with our charity partners to identify initiatives that the foundation could support and which would drive value and public benefit.”

Chair of trustees at The Captain Tom Foundation, Stephen Jones said: “Captain Sir Tom Moore was a beacon of hope around the world. Our mission as The Captain Tom Foundation is to continue his legacy of kindness and determination to create positive social change. “As a young charity, we have been working closely with The Charity Commission since we launched, and we welcome their input following the publication of our recent audited annual accounts.”

The Captain Tom Foundation, set up by the family of the war veteran in the wake of his record-breaking fundraising efforts, has only paid out more than £162,000 in management costs in its first year but has only given out four £40,000 grants. Set up in May 2020 after Sir Tom’s NHS fundraising drive, it has raised more than £1million in its first year.

Some £700,000 remains unspent.

Now I don’t know about you, and you can call me cynical, but I don’t like the sound of that at all.

58 thoughts on “Captain Tom: A Tainted Legacy?”

  5. The more I read about the carryings on in the UK, the more I appreciate what good teachers the South African government had. They mimic everything the British government does. We’ve also had a lot of questionable behavior with money donated to charities.

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    1. I think it is shameful that the idea and initial promotion came from her and her company, with the simple intention of taking so much of the money donated. I am hoping they are further investigated soon.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  11. I am so glad you wrote this article Pete. Capt Tom was huge news in NZ and many sent money to the UK. We were told the money was “going to the NHS” and I thought that was all done. I did not realise it was set up as an going “charity” and that a family member set it up and ran it. It gives all charities a bad name and an example just given here about the SPCA is but one. As a JP I deal with financial documents from around the world and there are open attempts internationally to launder money through charities set up by families for supposedly one of their children. Thanks for informing us Pete

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    1. It has had a lot of coverage here, Gavin. They also used money for a luxury family holiday to Barbados, saying it was on Captain Tom’s ‘bucket list’. I very much doubt that he cared about travelling to the West Indies at the age of 100.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  14. That sounds too bad. It reminds me of a cello-oriented ‘charity’ that sent out its recent details that showed that THEY SPENT 4% (FOUR PERCENT) ON PROGRAMS, out of an annual third of a million income in dollars. $14K out of $337K was spent on programs and the rest on trash-sounding things: ***40% for ‘fundraising’***, some big lot for administration, 43K for a website, 8 or 9k on social media…and yet when i wrote them to comment and to ask if I was reading it right (since I had administered charitable foundations with my lawyer boss for 17 years), they sent only excuses and an odd bit of flattery at my astuteness (!?. They lost all my support.

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    1. You were right to stop supporting them, Donnalee. There is far too much corruption in charitable organisations now, with many simply being used as ‘cash cows’.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  16. My brother-in-law worked for the charities commission and said it was an eye opener. Naively most of us probably think every penny we give to any charity goes straight to the cause. Of course there willbe some costs and some active charities like life boats or hospices need reserves of money to keep things running, But this all sounds dodgy.

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    1. ‘Dodgy’ is the word, Janet. Huge companies like Oxfam and the RSPCA take so much in ‘running costs’, I refuse to give them a penny. (I do pay monthly to the RNLI though, as I know some Norfolk volunteer lifeboat people who risk their lives for no pay)
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  18. Another money scheme dressed up as a charity. I am so jaded by these endless stories.. Before I contribute any money I always go online to Charity Navigator and check out how much goes out as charity.

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  22. He wouldn’t be happy, for sure. It is difficult to know where all the money goes, and accountability never seems to be the main concern. Perhaps smaller local charities are less likely to get involved in such behaviours and knowing those involved personally makes a difference, but… Thanks for the information, Pete.

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  23. Unless charities become more accountable and transparent, they will suffer. Even if you examine charities’ accounts, it is hard to guess what is a legitimate expense or running cost. There are more and more TV adverts for charities which tug on your heart strings and tell you how to give your money but tell you nothing about how your money is actually spent.

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    1. It is interesting to examine the salaries paid to their exectutives. At one time, the head of the RSPCA had a £250,000 salary, a free house, and a chauffeur-driven car. When I discovered that, I have never givem them a penny since.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  24. The whole charitable organization system needs a good shake-up. There are thousands of causes, most of them legitimate, but there are an equal number of charlatans hanging on like leeches to suck whatever they can out of the funds donated in good faith. I am deluged every day with begging letters, often displaying images that I refuse to look at as they are so distressing. Emotional blackmail. One of the charities I do give to sends images of rehabilitated, contented animals along with success stories. I have visited their marvelous facility several times so I know where their funds are spent. They do not send unsolicited “free gifts”. I have drawers full of note cards from a whole range of charities. It baffles me that such huge amounts are spent on these and all the letters that accompany them. As an older person on fixed income, it actually annoys me because while I throw these things away, I know from experience that many older people feel obligated. My aunt who could barely pay her own bills was sending money to all sorts of “funds”. She felt bad that she couldn’t send more, really worried about it. So yes, time for a shake-up.

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  25. It’s why I never donate money to charities. There’s so much fraud and you don’t know where the money ends up. My mother made the mistake of giving money to Cancer Research and forever after that was plagued with letters from other charities as her name and contact details had obviously been sold on.

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