Photo: Stefan Cardinale/Corbis via Getty Images
Supermodel Naomi Campbell has never been one to avoid getting dirty, but she can no longer serve on the board of poverty relief organization Fashion for Relief, which she founded in 2005. The investigation found evidence of financial misconduct. Of the millions of dollars raised by charities, only a small portion actually goes to charity. Campbell’s suspension will last for five years.
According to the findings, Fashion for Relief raised £4.8 million over five years, but transferred just £389,000 to partner charities. According to the Guardian, tens of thousands of pounds were spent on “luxury hotel rooms, flights, spa treatments, personal security and Campbell’s cigarettes”. Mr Campbell’s charges include running up a bill of €3,000 a night for a hotel room in Cannes and paying €4,000 for personal security. The organization also funneled £290,000 in fraudulent consultancy fees and £26,000 in annual travel expenses to Mr Campbell’s co-trustee Bianca Helmich. Mr Helmich was banned from acting as a director for nine years and repaid all fees to the Charity Commission in April 2023. The charity’s other director, Veronica Chow, was banned from acting as a director for four years.
As an example, the report shows that Fashion for Relief raised £375,000 at a Save the Children fundraising event in 2017, but the payment to the charity was not completed until almost six years later in 2023. It is detailed that it is a year.
Ms Campbell and her colleagues had defended the unrelated charges by arguing that the charity’s sole purpose was not to raise money. (This seems like a hard sell when you’re citing Nelson Mandela as the inspiration for starting it, and the word relief is literally in your organization’s name, but I digress. )
Please keep in touch.
Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily
Vox Media, LLC Terms of Use and Privacy Notice
