The UKs charity watchdog released a mind-blowing report about the Captain Tom Foundation this thursday. Hannah Ingram-Moore and her husband Colin got into hot water for mixing up personal and charity stuff
Back in early-2020 Captain Tom became well-known when he walked his garden to raise money for NHS (he got almost £39m). After that success his family set-up a foundation in may-2020‚ but things went south pretty quick
- Foundation sold Captain Tom branded wine
- They offered special gin products
- Books were part of merchandise too
- Spa pool building appeared at family house
The report shows that Hannah Ingram-Moore wasnt honest about money: she got £18k for some award show but gave the charity only £2k. The family company got £1.4m for book deals; even though everyone thought this money would help good causes
The watchdog found that customers got confused about where their money goes when buying stuff. The family business (CTV) had to give 15% to charity from online sales but they made a weird system: people got sent to other websites so charity didnt get anything
Things got worse when Hannah tried to get a big salary as CEO. She went on TV saying she didnt want £150k per year but emails show she actually asked for that much (she got approved for £85k instead)
The foundation stopped taking money in mid-2023. Now the watchdog says both Ingram-Moores cant be charity trustees anymore because they made lots of mistakes and got too much personal benefit from everything
We are extremely disappointed to read the findings of the report which indicate that this was not the case