Charities facing financial pressure, report finds

Charity commissioner John Mills says some "extremely talented" people are driving the sector

Charities in Jersey are "vibrant and doing well" but the sector faces "lots of problems" with finances, the island's charity commissioner has said.

In his annual report on the sector, commissioner John Mills recommended charities could work closer together to help reduce overheads such as electricity bills.

Charities receive income from a variety of places, but Mr Mills said most were reliant on support from the public.

He also said it was "quite hard" to find new trustees to run the charities.

'Dedicated people'

The report was unveiled at the Jersey Charity Commissioner Conference on Thursday, which was attended by about 100 charity representatives.

Mr Mills said the report showed the sector was "vibrant and doing well" and it was "driven by some extremely talented and dedicated people".

But he added: "There are lots of problems and some of them are facing financial pressure because they are dependent on grants, loans or donations.

"It's important to reflect and I've tried to do that on what a demanding role being a charity trustee actually is quite apart from their legal duties.

"It takes a lot."

More than a hundred people from different charities attended the conference

The report also showed there were 474 charities on the commissioner’s register and 17 registered in the past year.

The role of the commissioner is to ensure charity trustees comply with their legal obligations.

Mr Mills said many of the charities worked in the health sector so they were "all in the same space".

He said there was "scope for greater collaboration".