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Should we let a company use our workshop name? (Anonymous post 🤫)
Ocean King Staff Senior Community Executive at CharityConnect Posted 1 month ago
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This question is from a member of our community that wishes to remain anonymous:
We are a small scientific charity that has a long running program providing workshops on our area of research. These workshops are well regarded, and we have a good reputation.
Recently, there has been some turnover/instability in leadership, and the group responsible for organising the next workshop have started to make decisions by themselves.
Instead of running the next workshop ourselves, they have been approached by a commercial partner (a startup company in our space).
The partner is planning to hold a conference next year, they plan to have a day of demonstrations of their technology and invite members of the press, politicians etc. Bluntly, it's a PR stunt.
The partners has suggested that we brand their conference with our workshop name.
In return, they are offering to handle all organisation, cover all costs, and reimburse our officers for travel expenses. It has been made clear that the conference is happening with or without us, so there's no doubt that the primary purpose is the benefit of the commercial partner.
Some of us have serious concerns about this arrangement. Namely:
This doesn't seem like a normal donation or sponsorship (cash or in kind), but rather a commercial arrangement. The partner will retain all organisational control, and we will not have any say in how the conference is run. We will be contributing our intellectual property into their conference, on their terms.
The charity itself will receive nothing of 'equivalent value' in return. Organisation of the workshop doesn't seem to qualify here, as it's not our workshop, it's their conference with our name on it.
There is a conflict of interest, as our officers are receiving a private benefit in the form of travel reimbursements.
Because this is likely a commercial relationship, it may not qualify as a 'charitable activity', and thus, the proposed arrangement may not be legal.
Crucially, it seems possible that a regulator might view this arrangement as: a commercial arrangement for a non-charitable purpose in which the charity participates but receives no benefit, and in which there are substantial conflicts of interest in the form of private kickbacks to officers.
We fully intend to seek professional advice, but I would still appreciate any guidance that can be provided by the community here. Things are moving very quickly.
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