An Air Ambulance charity with no aircraft, which has already been censured by the Fundraising Regulator amid “misleading” fundraising concerns, is to be investigated by the Charity Commission

Stoke-on-Trent based charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) Stoke Air Ambulance provides equipment and services for UK air ambulances and seeks to set up its own service for the Staffordshire city.

But the Charity Commission has launched a statutory inquiry after previous engagement with the charity found concerns around its strategic planning and “whether its goal of obtaining and operating an air ambulance service is viable”.

The regulator first engaged with the charity last year to assess concerns about the level of its spending on fundraising and staff, its level of direct charitable activity and around its management of conflicts of interest as well as payments to a company connected to one of its trustees.

Its probe will look at the charity’s management of conflicts of interest, whether there has been private benefit to any trustees, its fundraising arrangements and the proportion of its income used for charitable purposes.

Fundraising Regulator concerns

The launch of the Charity Commission’s statutory inquiry follows another regulatory probe into the charity this year, carried out by the Fundraising Regulator.

This found that the charity was in breach of its code as its fundraising “did not make it clear enough” that it “did not yet operate a functional air ambulance service”.

When text and images on its website were taken together “we considered that potential donors might reasonably believe their gifts would support a working service”.

The Fundraising Regulator also raised concerns that the charity’s website “also made statements that could suggest other air ambulance charities operating in the area were less responsive to emergencies around Stoke than to other areas they covered”.

“The charity could not provide evidence to substantiate these statements. One page also breached the code by encouraging donors using payroll giving to change their donations to benefit Stoke Air Ambulance CIO instead of other similar charities,” said the regulator.

It added: "During the investigation, we were contacted again by complainants who were unhappy about the charity’s ongoing social media use.

"We examined this and found instances where the charity had used misleading information to attract donors to fundraising events, and criticised other organisations.

Stoke Air Ambulance has been contacted for comment.

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