26 February 2025The Chair of the Charity Commission for England and Wales, Orlando Fraser KC, is urging greater giving from those with deeper pockets, during recent visits to charities, where he is seeing first-hand the impact of voluntary organisations in north Wales.
Orlando Fraser’s comments came as he visited the Association of Voluntary Organisations in Wrexham (AVOW) on Monday, with other visits carried out on 25 February to three more charities as he celebrated Wales’s community spirit.
AVOW is the County Voluntary Council for Wrexham. It provides free advice and signposts local community and voluntary organisations. AVOW also provides health and wellbeing support to the local community in Wrexham.
The charity is one of many recipients to obtain funds through the regulator’s Revitalising Trusts Wales programme.
Last year, the Revitalising Trusts team helped a volunteer wind up Wrexham Care Association after it had fallen inactive but had remaining funds to spend. After identifying AVOW as a suitable charity to use the funds as intended, the regulator oversaw the transfer of over £30,000.
AVOW has been able to fund its Community Hubs Coordinator role for a further year, helping ensure vulnerable people can access local and voluntary services through community hubs based in Gwersyllt and Acton (Wrexham). The charity hopes to expand its network to additional locations and share best practices with other community-based organisations.
The visit came as the programme reaches £11.6 million revitalised in Wales alone, contributing to good causes, community foundations and charities across Wales. Since 2021, 346 Welsh charities have entered the programme, 80 of which are now operating again after years of inactivity. The remaining 266 inactive charities have all successfully transferred any dormant assets ensuring they continue to contribute to the sector.
Speaking on the Revitalising Trusts Wales programme, Orlando Fraser KC, said:
The Revitalising Trusts programme demonstrates how the sector and we as regulator have a common goal – ensuring public good rises above all else.
There are fantastic benefits to being a trustee, but we know it can be difficult to recruit, and due to pressures on charities, it can be hard to remain active.
Our programme, working with Community Foundation Wales and the Welsh government, offers trustees the support to get back on track or, if the decision to close is taken, helps them effectively wind up and transfer funds in a way that will ensure the legacy of their great work lives on.
AVOW Chief Officer, Dawn Roberts-McCabe, said:
We were delighted to be considered for the funds from Wrexham Care Association who had done great work as a befriending service, reaching some of our must vulnerable residents. AVOW’s Community Hubs programme has built upon their work and provided isolated residents the opportunity to reconnect with their community through meaningful community and voluntary activities near their homes. Jane Edwards, Community Hubs Coordinator, encourages the participants to decide which programmes to put on or what organisations will be of most help to the local community, giving true community ownership while alleviating loneliness and isolation.
Orlando Fraser was also due to visit North Wales Recovery Communities, Clough Williams-Ellis Foundation and the Snowdonia Society. This forms part of a farewell visit as he concludes his term as Chair of the charity regulator for Wales and England.
Discussing his visits, Orlando added:
In my time as chair, I’ve been privileged to see first-hand the fantastic charitable work across England & Wales, work made possible by dedicated trustees, staff and volunteers.
I’m grateful to AVOW, North Wales Recovery Communities, Clough Williams-Ellis Foundation and the Snowdonia Society for taking the time to meet with me.
There is a strong community spirit here in Wales – and, as my term as chair comes to an end, I call on potential philanthropists here and further afield, to invest in this spirit.
Orlando’s call for more philanthropists comes as new research suggests that the UK’s richest people give a smaller proportion of their wealth to charity than the average person.
The data from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) indicates that the UK’s millionaires (people with investable assets of £1 million or more) gave the equivalent of 0.4% of their combined investable assets in 2023 (equating to almost £8 billion) compared to wider UK public donations of around £14 billion to good causes in the same year, equating to 1.6% of their income.
Research by Centre for Cities also shows that while Wales is home to some of the most generous people in the UK (according to percentage of income donated), donations tend to go to national rather than local charities.
