Archewell report by Charity Watch

[BemusedAmerican]

It's tax time and Charity Watch is revising charity ratings. Archewell Foundation is now old enough to have a rating:
https://www.charitywatch.org/charity-donating-articles/archewell-foundation-charitywatch-rating

Here is info about Charity Watch for the curious: https://www.charitywatch.org/about-charitywatch/mission-goals

I wouldnt worry about it op, most will get the gist.

Charities and/or foundations are usually places for wealthy families to park huge sums of money in order to pay less tax. They may not avoid paying all tax but it's significantly less than if X amount of earnings were declared as profit to the taxman. H&M were probably expecting to be gazillionaires by now, with the potentials sums from their Spotify and Netflix deals. But since those have failed to materialise, a charity is essentially defunct.

The Archewell delinquency just made NBC, a major US network
https://www.nbcnews.com/now/video/harry-and-meghan-s-archewell-charity-found-delinquent-over-unpaid-fees-210851909834

What sort of fees are we talking here - pocket change, or five figure sums?

Even my 89 year old Aunt can make an electronic payment so why can’t H and M ? Are cheques still in use in the US ? I cannot remember the last time I wrote one !

Cheques (or checks, as they would call them) are a declining form of payment in the US, as they are worldwide, but they are still prevalent there, far more than in other western economies. Chip and pin payment card systems weren’t really adopted in the US for various reasons, and so if you want to make a payment out of your current account a cheque is still convenient.

So it’s not that unlikely that they would have chosen to pay by posting a cheque even if other payment forms were available, I guess. What does seem unlikely is that their office didn’t notice it hadn’t been cashed and follow it up. I’m old enough to have worked in offices back in the days when cheques were commonplace and one of the jobs of the finance team was to go through the bank statements and reconcile the cheques that had been drawn and then paid, so they knew what cheques had not yet been cashed (so you knew what money was still to come out of your bank account, basically!). If there was a payment that needed to go through, you’d keep a close eye on it.

I am a company secretary for a UK charity.

There are several annual filings that have to happen with different bodies.

OK, I do them online, but even then, I make sure I've had the confirmation email; log in and see that the account has updated; check the register to see what is publicly showing - all to make sure it's gone through OK. We have a very high profile patron, so to have anything amiss that the press could pick up on could be disastrous (not dissimilar to Archewell's position, then...)

I also get sent automated email reminders from the relevant bodies reminding me that things are due, so if for some reason the filing had failed, I would be notified that it was still outstanding.

I can't believe that no one at Archewell would have kept an eye on it or have been aware that they were a year late with their paperwork. So "the cheque got lost in the post" sounds like a BS excuse to me 🤷‍♀️

Firstky their business people sort that. You setipudly dont think mehan and Harry are personally writing checks?

They said they posted it on time it wasnt recieved ...theyve sent another. Complete non story

Of course no one things that H&M are personally responsible for Archewell's admin

They are responsible for making sure that Archewell has competent employees and its systems that are fit for purpose, though. As Directors, that is completely on them.

Posted too soon...

But the point is, that a well-run charitable foundation wouldn't be so behind with basic admin like this.

If they can't get basic filings correct, then what else aren't they doing that they should be? And what are the board (ie H&M) doing to ensure that their foundation is being run properly? Seems like there is a lack of good governance somewhere.

Xpost with @Serenster

A fellow fan of good governance! We love to see it 🤣

Well I disagree It has boosted their egos and been a help on their worldwide we want privacy campaign. And gave them a chance to be even more satisfied with themselves and their benevolence to good causes. Shame about the setback.

This is a really important fact about charitable and not-for-profit activity in the US and one which I think Joe Public in the UK doesn't always realise.

@RockaLock and @Serenster I fully agree that normally such a basic oversight would smack of administrative incompetence, but in H&M's case they have had a high staff turnover at Archewell since it began so I can see how it might have falled between the cracks. ie I think it's an honest mistake caused by high staff turnover.

That may be so but it doesn’t change the fact that if Harry and Meghan are in charge, they should be checking that there are no oversights such as these. High staff turnover is no excuse for managers to abdicate responsibility. The buck (literally) stops with them

typo

Oh yeah I totally agree the directors are ultimately responsible for what their staff do. I guess I'm just trying to say it's understandable.

They will have received many notifications.

I’ve read on TwiX it’s not just the money that hasn’t been sent, but also some accompanying paperwork, (renewal form, presumably loads of questions about what they’ve been doing and their funds etc?), has also not been submitted.

Other posts saying renewal form has been sent, just not payment. So not sure which it is.

Either way, surely you’d get some reminders before you’re hit with a notice you cannot receive or donate money?

@Mylovelygreendress I don't write checks. I either directly transfer from my bank account, pay by credit card or use PayPal. NYS, NYC, and the IRS encourage electronic payment. My job eliminated payment by check 5 years ago. It is really easy to go online and pay tax payments, tickets, bills, rent, etc. I actually know people who don't own checkbooks.

It is likely a copy of their IRS tax filing required that they haven’t yet produced which is holding up the rest.

If not, it’s complete ineptitude. But if they keep in touchy with the office that manages this everything will be fine. It’s the failure to respond at all that causes issues.

Given that we knew about this months ago, it’s a surprise that it wasn’t already handled.
They will likely be fined for it.

Should I offer to handle it? 🤣

US taxes were due on April 15th. On April 15th, Harry revealed he had changed his residency to the US.
https://time.com/6968443/prince-harry-residency-united-states-official-documents/

I think it’s an honest mistake but it’s been caused by incompetence, poor governance, or similar.

When an organisation is run properly, it shouldn’t matter if staff leave. As a charity there should be a framework in place that means nothing gets lost or missed.

Part of good governance is ensuring that nothing crucial rests on just one person. It’s too risky. There are supposed to be controls in place that ensure compliance is always maintained. That doesn’t seem to be the case here and underlines previous concerns raised about the lack of a robust structure and oversight at Archewell.