There's a charity called XLP. It's an ambiguous name, but as you peruse their website it's hard not to be impressed by their work.
Their mission statement is:
"To engage in long-term relationships that empower young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to complete their education, avoid anti-social behaviour, and ultimately become independent and confident contributors within their communities"
Soul Survivor made a number of donations to XLP in the 2000s and 2010s.
The first one I can find is £14,928 in 2004.
It's followed by £11,000 in 2005 and £15,457 in 2006.
These are all listed in Soul Survivor's annual filings at Companies House.
In total, they donated £99,548 over 12 years.
So what?
Well, the problem is that Liz Biddulph became a trustee of XLP in November 2004:
(Source: XLP pages at Companies House)
What's a trustee? According to the Charity Commission,
"Trustees have independent control over, and legal responsibility for, a charity’s management and administration."Trustees have a legal duty to act in a charity's best interests.
We can see an example of this the very next year.
Soul Survivor finished 2004 with only £49,284 in the bank. That's very low for a charity with a turnover of more than £3,000,000 that employed 38 staff.
And yet, in 2005 Soul Survivor donated £11,000 to XLP.
The charity she lead donated £11,000 to a charity she has legal responsibility for.
That year it looks like Soul Survivor made a number of staff redundant: the 2005 report only lists 25 employees. In that context was the XLP donation in the best interests of Soul Survivor?
The Charity Commission has rules about this:
(Source: The Essential Trustee)
Charities are expected to establish a process that deals with conflicts of interest. Did Soul Survivor do this?
There would be no complications if Biddulph was donating her own money. The challenge here is that charity funds were being donated.
And that challenge grew.
Because, in 2007 Mike Pilavachi also became a trustee of XLP:
The next donation to XLP is £1,477 in 2008. And then £26,486 in 2011.
If both Soul Survivor's leaders have conflicts of interest, it's quite a challenge to have a process that counteracts them. However, it is possible that another trustee took on the decisions about grants in this period.
The donations keep on going.
From 2011 these gifts were listed in the Soul Action section of the report. Soul Action is a partnership with Tear Fund. The 2016 filings provide some insight into how this worked:
No details are given about who 'the team' were.
In 2013, it looks like Soul Survivor had another tricky year, spending more than they received in funds. They end the year with £95,499 in the bank, and their filing in 2014 has two fewer staff, which may be connected. And yet they still donate £5,400 to XLP in 2014.
I'm not saying anything bad about XLP and the work they do. I am saying there were conflicts of interest here for Soul Survivor. And did the leaders follow Charity Commission rules regarding them?
As you'd expect from trustees, the support extended to other aspects. Here is Mike Pilavachi speaking to young adults on their gap year programme:
And here he is platforming the charity at one of the summer festivals:
In 2014 Liz Biddulph stepped down as co-leader of Soul Survivor. However, as discussed in the previous post she remained a staff member. A conflict of interest may still remain in her regard, albeit of a different nature.
In 2017 Pilavachi stepped down as a trustee of XLP.
Biddulph remained a trustee until 2020.
Since 2000 there were £99,548 in donations from Soul Survivor to XLP. All of these were made when one, or both, of the Soul Survivor leaders were trustees of XLP.
More Soul Survivor blogs
The odd lines of accountability for the Mike Pilavachi interns
Questions about a £500,000 gift and Mike Pilavachi
