I am writing to you in your respective roles as presenter of #WATO and PM. Since 6am the front page of todays Telegraph has been promoted by BBC Radio4 news as though it was a factual piece of writing that has been well researched. The article quotes from 6 UK charities and purports to have analysed these and a further 8 charities. The total number of charities in the UK is 163,000 of which these 14 are not typical. The suggestion that paying over £100,000 for a senior executive of a charity with an income of £48M plus is not news or even newsworthy. On the other hand if a commercial company with a similar turnover was paying its senior staff at or around £100,000 that would be newsworthy as these executives are more likely to be earning seven figure salaries, not six figure salaries.

By all means promote the story but please don’t present it for what it is not. The research was carried out by a Conservative MP and she has chosen to focus on the 14 Charities that do the most in quantitative terms to provide Aid in the developing world. Why choose these 14 charities out of the 163,000? The comments by William Shawcross appear to be arguing for a lower level of pay by charity executives. The Charity Commission has an income of some £20M and as their Chair Sir William earns a pro-rata salary of over £125,000. Why is he preaching one thing for staff of charities and not practicing the same regime within the Charity Commission? These are the story. What about the fantastic work of 163,000 charities in helping people in the UK and abroad. These are the story.

Please don’t allow some poorly researched data and a few unhelpful words from the Chair of the Charity Commission distract you from the real issues that this story has to tell you as journalists and us as the people who provide funding for charities and elect MPs and Governments who appoint the Chair of our Charity Commission. I have written more extensively on this here.

Ian Chisnall

Trustee