Revitalising Trusts project recovers Scotland's missing millions
Over £5 million from dormant trusts revitalised, with “more to come”
The Revitalising Trusts project, a collaboration between The Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and Foundation Scotland, has so far released over £5 million of dormant funds for public benefit since the project launched in 2021.
Scotland is well-known as being a nation of givers. Across generations families, individuals and businesses the length and breadth of the country have set up charitable trusts for the benefit of others. Donors often choose causes which they are connected to, are concerned or passionate about. However, for many different reasons a trust can become inactive, meaning that funds effectively lie dormant rather than delivering charitable benefit as intended. It can be difficult to recruit new trustees, find time to run the charity or as times change, it can be impossible to identify beneficiaries befitting the original deeds of the trust.
The Revitalising Trusts project has to date identified over 300 inactive charitable trusts of varying sizes and purposes, with forgotten funds often lying dormant in accounts for several decades and in some cases well over a century.
Since its set up in 2005, OSCR has kept a record of the thousands of charitable trusts which exist across the country, with each charity required to submit an annual return. It is through these regulatory checks that inactive trusts are identified, where they have either had no income or expenditure or donated less than 30% of their total income over the last five years.
The Revitalising Trusts project team then makes contact to offer support and assistance to help reopen, repurpose or wind up the trust, all with the overarching aim to release the funds for public good. Foundation Scotland takes the time to work alongside trustees and legal teams to ensure that any inactive charitable funds are spent and make a difference in keeping with “the spirit” of the original intentions. Pictured is the Peterhead Men's Shed who received funding through the Revitalising Trusts project.
Examples provide a fascinating insight into how life has changed in Scotland over the years. The project worked with a trust set up to offer medical support pre-NHS, another set up to supply financial assistance to widows of “good character” pre-government pensions being made available to women, another to provide educational bursaries for boys with a particular surname and in some cases maximum grant restrictions, such as a limit of five pounds, would not suffice in modern times.
Foundation Scotland has over 25 years’ experience distributing funds which provide long-term benefit for communities. As part of this national project, they are supporting trustees to release inactive funds so that they can be redistributed to good causes across Scotland. Alternatively, Foundation Scotland will support trustees to breathe new life into the charity, for example by changing their charitable purpose to help address new needs in local communities.
Steff Bell, Revitalising Trust Project Advisor at Foundation Scotland said:
Releasing over £5 million for charitable causes is a significant achievement, and something we are very proud of, but the potential is much greater, and we know there’s much more to come. We’re committed to working alongside OSCR to ensure that every penny currently sitting in a dormant charitable account reaches a cause fitting with the original intentions. This is especially important in the current difficult climate. Each of the trusts we work alongside has its own story and its own charitable purpose, but in every case, funds have been put aside for the benefit of others, not to lie dormant when needs exist. Each dormant charitable trust we uncover has its own individual nuances and requires a bespoke plan.
We are making great progress; overall, the trustees we have approached have received the offer of support positively, with several indicating that they’d been stuck for several years, unsure how to take next steps to distribute funds. We’re also gaining traction amongst the legal profession, who are often a gateway to these trusts, and we’re actively encouraging anyone working with a charity that has fallen inactive to reach out to us. I’m confident that by working together, we can help many more trusts to maximise their funds and reach for public good.
Steve Kent, Policy Manager at OSCR said:
Of the many things we have to do as a regulator, none is more rewarding than working with Foundation Scotland to track down historic underused charitable funds and find new ways of putting them to good use. We have seen that even a few thousand pounds here and there can have life-changing impacts in local communities. The donors and philanthropists of the past may not always have been able to envision the challenges that would face future generations, but one thing we can be sure of is that they would have wished their money to make real differences to people’s lives. We are most grateful to the many charity trustees and professional advisors entrusted with those funds who are determined to honour that spirit by working with us to breathe life into them once more.We are confident that there is plenty more still to be found and we would encourage anyone struggling to find good use for a trust fund to come forward. Don’t wait for us to find you!
You can read more about the project here