The number of whistleblowing complaints submitted to the Charity Commission (CC) by workers in arts, culture, heritage and science organisations is up 140% on where it was three years prior.
Between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025, the CC received 84 disclosures from individuals in England and Wales concerned about wrongdoing in the sector, compared with just 35 in the same period between 2021 and 2022.
In fact, in each of the last four batches of whistleblowing reports logged by the commission, submissions from those in arts, culture, heritage and science-focused charities have risen.
Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, a year before the latest release of figures, 68 people, either currently employed in arts, culture, heritage and science non-profit organisations, or who classed themselves as recent leavers or volunteers, got in touch with the charity regulator to voice serious concerns.
This means in the space of a year, the number of people reporting concerns about arts and culture charities leapt approximately 24%.
The rising numbers are part of a general trend, which has seen more and more people making an official declaration about perceived wrongdoing at a charity.
“We continue to see high levels of whistleblowing disclosures compared to previous years, and 2024 to 2025 is the second-highest number of disclosures received within the last 10 years,” the most recent data release reveals.
Financial resilience proving charities’ biggest threat
Meanwhile, the regulator’s first-ever Charity Sector Risk Assessment, released in tandem, finds charities are experiencing “multiple challenges” to their financial resilience, including increased demand for services, battling rising costs when it comes to employing staff, and the impact of inflation on the value of funding.
“While the sector is diverse and these pressures impact on charities in very different ways, depending on their size and the nature of their operations, overall, the Commission says 22.5% of charities reported an operating deficit in their 2023 Annual Return, up from 20% in 2022,” the findings state.
“The regulator stresses that running a deficit does not mean a charity is insolvent, but that this finding continues a growing trend of charities drawing on reserves to bridge the gap between income and expenditure.”
Commission chair Mark Simms OBE acknowledged the findings painted “a picture of considerable, cumulative challenges facing the charity sector at this time”.
“For many individual charities, the risks of financial sustainability are indeed grave,” he said, “and some charities are facing difficult choices, including to restructure operations or services.
“But it’s important to put this report into context. The charity sector overall has demonstrated incredible resilience over many decades, and indeed centuries, adapting and adjusting over time to the most serious challenges and enormous social, political and economic change.
“I’m hopeful and confident that the sector will continue to weather the storms of our times. However, individual charities must be clear-eyed about the challenges they face, and take steps to mitigate these.”
