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.