A Charity Trustee Must have Integrity if Nothing Else Naomi Campbell, Supermodel, Banned for 5 Years
08/10/2024

Image Source: Charity

On the 26th September this year Naomi Campbell was banned by the Charity Commission from being a charity trustee for 5 years. Her Fashion for Relief charitable venture was considered to have acted illegally after it claimed to be a fundraising partner of UNICEF, the global children’s charity. The Commission’s enquiry and subsequent report also highlighted significant financial misconduct and chaotic management at the charity she founded and was a trustee for.

The report highlighted that Fashion for Relief had raised nearly £4.8m in five years up to 2020 but gave just 10% of that money to partner charities in the form of grants. It said Campbell had run up bills for hotels rooms, champagne, cigarettes, flights and spa treatments that were inappropriately charged to the charity.

Yet, according to Celebrity Net Worth Naomi Campbell's Net Worth is currently at least $80 million, whilst an article in ‘The Richest magazine’, her annual earnings have reached as high as $49 million in some years.

So, why would someone so seriously wealthy have their cigarettes and champagne bought by their own charity?

In September 2019, Fashion for Relief put on a sensational star-studded fashion show and charity auction at the British Museum in London. The charity indicated it was working with UNICEF to raise funds for it and a third charity, the Mayor’s Fund for London. This latter charity received an agreed £100,000 from the British Museum event, but subsequently submitted a Serious Incident Report to the commission after it said £50,000 promised to it from the proceeds of another Fashion for Relief event in November of the same year never materialised.

In a brochure for the British Museum event, held during London fashion week, Fashion for Relief said the funds raised would “support UNICEF’s efforts” to protect and transform children’s lives.

On a page prominently displaying the UNICEF brand logo, the brochure said, inter alia, “Working together, funds raised will support UNICEF’s efforts to provide the essential interventions to protect, save lives and ensure the rights of all children, everywhere.”

However, UNICEF stated that it had never been a partner of Fashion for Relief, had not informed of the event, and had not received any monies from the fundraiser. Subsequently, it submitted a serious incident report about Campbell’s charity to the commission in 2022. The legal notice outlined concerns that the UNICEF brand had been used misleadingly at the event without the prior agreement of the charity.

UNICEF also raised questions about a meeting in June 2018 between Campbell and Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary.to discuss girls’ education in developing countries. A Foreign Office Press Release dated 15th June described Campbell as a UNICEF  women’s empowerment envoy.

Campbell criticised the report’s findings at the time, saying it was flawed and “incomplete and misleading”. She added, “I have never undertaken philanthropic work for personal gain, nor will I ever do so.”

The above picture shows Naomi Campbell walking the runway at the Fashion for Relief show at the British Museum during London fashion week, September 2019. 

Source: Samir Hussein / WireImage

Sources and Links

Guardian
CBS News

Charity Commission Report https://tinyurl.com/3zr3h2jh

Foreign Office PR  Foreign Office (FCDO) press release

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