CharityComms chair Joe Saxton appeared on last week’s Dispatches – Tracing the Marathon’s Millions. The programme set out to ‘reveal’ how the London Marathon makes big money from other charities, and to investigate the extent of its charitable giving.
In an extended interview, Saxton gave his opinion on the way in which the London Marathon Charitable Trust is structured and operates. Other experts, and numerous third sector employees and fundraisers, also offered their opinions on the charity behind the London Marathon.
The concepts of ‘transparency’ and ‘openness’ recurred throughout the programme, connected to both the charity’s financial accounts and the way in which they organise the London Marathon. Whilst they comply with legal rules for financial openness, the question of whether charities should provide more intricate financial detail – so that they can be held accountable by stakeholders – was raised. Additionally, the charity was labelled ‘secretive’ with regard to how it allocates running places to charities, and which charities hold coveted ‘golden bonds’.
Saxton himself emphasised the need for ‘transparency’, especially as ‘nobody else can shut the streets of London in quite the same way as the London Marathon can’; in the same way that other monopoly organisations have regulators, there should be someone to tell the Marathon organisers: ‘you have to behave in a certain way’.
Dispatches once again reminds the third sector of the particular expectations both professionals and the public have of charitable organisations. Openness, transparency and honesty should be at the core of a charity – or organisations are liable to receive public backlash, fairly or unfairly.