Brighton Pride’s charity money will all be distributed by its sister company following an investigation of the charity which previously allocated most of the money raised.
The Pride Community Foundation CIC (PCF), formed in 2019 to dish out grants to local community groups, has appointed an interim CEO to set up a new fund and appoint a board to oversee grants.
Meanwhile, the Charity Commission is still looking into how the Brighton Rainbow Fund transferred tens of thousands of pounds to the Ledward Centre and Scene Magazine, leaving it unable to pay grants to LGBTQ+ organisations.
Brighton Pride says it has paid out £60,000 in emergency grants to some of those who had not received the money they had been promised.
PCF is also taking over the running of Scene Magazine – but says it will be self-funding, and no charity money will be spent on it.
The Ledward Centre, which was founded by the Brighton Rainbow Fund, is currently closed for building work. Its website says a new charity is being set up to run it.
Paul Kemp, managing director of Brighton Pride, said: “After meeting with community groups, we wanted to move as quickly as possible to set up a new funding process to ensure Pride can get grant funding to groups as soon as possible after Pride this year.
“Pride has raised more than £1.4 million for local good causes since 2013, and we are excited to be moving forward with a positive way forward.”
Mr Pumm said: “It’s envisaged PCF will be much more than a grant-making body but also promote and create unity within the LGBTQ+ communities through initiatives such as United in Pride.
“PCF will also advocate for LGBTQ+ equality and seek to maintain strong relationships with partners across the city and wider Sussex region.
“We received lots of positive feedback and valuable input that will help us build a lasting organisation.”
PCF was set up by Paul Kemp and Jayne Babb, both also directors of Brighton Pride, who will stay on for the time being. The new CEO, former councillor Leslie Pumm, is also now an interim director.
The intention is to recruit for a permanent director and a salaried administrator once the new fund is set up in a few months – with Brighton Pride paying the salary and set up admin costs.
None of the salaries or costs will be paid with Pride’s ringfenced charity pot – which includes the two pounds donated from every ticket sold.
The administrator would also be expected to organise separate fundraising and apply for external grants.
Eventually, Mr Kemp and Ms Babb will step down as directors, making PCF completely separate from Brighton Pride.
Brighton Rainbow Fund trustee Chris Gull released a statement via Scene Magazine last Friday saying the Rainbow Fund was closing.
Mr Gull is also a director of Scene Magazine Media CIC, which published Scene until it was transferred to PCF, and which will also now be wound down.
He said he was about to start six months of chemotherapy following an operation to remove a cancerous tumour in March.
He said: “Now is clearly the time for me to focus on my recovery, and proper retirement.
“After years of delay in building control assent to move on with the next phases of fitting out of the Ledward Centre, many will have noticed the centre is currently closed for construction work.
“I’m disappointed to be stepping down just as we get to reopen in a couple of months, but the team have some very exciting plans, and I’m looking forward to seeing them all finally come to fruition from afar.”
He also said the Charity Commission would be publishing a report soon. There is no suggestion Mr Gull was acting illegally or out of self-interest.
A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said: “We have an open regulatory compliance case into the Brighton Rainbow Fund and continue to engage with the trustees, reviewing information supplied by them to inform any next steps.”
Scene Magazine Media’s last filed accounts showed that discounting money received from the Rainbow Fund and the repayment of a government covid loan, it made a loss of about £7,000, having spent about £21,800 on staffing and admin costs.
Mr Pumm said the magazine now has overheads of less than £1,000 a month, which is covered by income from online advertising.
“which includes the two pounds donated from every ticket sold. ”
It’s compulsory to pay the £ 2.00. There isn’t a mechanism to have it removed.
This has grated with a lot of people over the years. If it’s compulsory to pay it then it’s not a donation.
But aside from that let’s hope this is a fresh start for the charitable giving side of Pride with the Raimbow Fund seeming to be less than transparrent.
Steps down and closes the charity just before the report is published….. why do I have a feeling the charity commission is going to find possible criminal acts and be referring this to the police…. Maybe I’m wrong… we will see
I have two questions.
1. What happened to the 50k given to Gscene? Has the bank account been transferred over or has the 50k disappeared totally? If so, where has it gone? Surely there is a paper trail of it arriving in the bank account and showing exactly where it went? This is a really important question which needs to be answered. This is not a small amount of money. Is there a repayment plan from the advertising money to repay the loan? or has this been written off? Changing the name of a company to intentionally not repay debts is illegal.
2. The Ledward Centre is not much more than novelty project which when it boils down to it is a cafe, and not much more. Did it really needs the hundreds of thousands of pounds that’s been spent on it? Also what tendering was done for the work as I can’t see how this much money has been spent on it for basically a new kitchen. Is the builder a friend by any chance?…. this needs to seriously be looked into when this amount of money is involved.
I understand pride setting up a new charity but we can’t just wipe away what’s happened. People need to come clean and explain where all this money has gone. The community have a right to know. If the people involved don’t want to come clean and explain then it needs to be heard in court. Paul Kemp should be pushing for answers as it was pride money that’s been potentially stolen. If Paul wants to remain respected he needs to be transparent and ask these questions and give answers not just say we are moving on….
Thank you Brighton and hove news for again publishing this and being transparent.
It’s not as if all that money given to Scene improved their services.. No hard copies in the venues anymore and far fewer articles than before.
Chris Gull was Director of both Scene mag and The Ledward Centre and Trustee of Brighton Rainbow Fund. The Rainbow Fund money was mostly going to his own projects. Handy, that!
Im sorry to hear that Chris has been unwell, but pleased to hear he is recovering fast. BUT, this does not excuse the fact he gave charity funds to his own projects which are in fact not really charities in them selves.
One is a commercial magazine, one is a bizarre type of cafe/youth centre which is hardly used, in a building in an expensive commercial area. For the price of renting this building they could have brought a property of similar size in kemptown. The Ledward Centre has no real purpose, no real aim, no real benefit to the community. Somewhere safe and warm for the LGBTQ community go to I hear you say? but so is Starbucks or Costa….and we don’t donate them hundreds of thousands of pounds. it was a badly thought out tribute to the late James ledward.
A simple bench or a yearly donation to a local charity would have been much more fitting than this abuse of charity money. I really hope not to see any grants from pride to this place again. It either needs to self fund or close down. Paul Kemp please take not people are watching this.
It also doesn’t excuse the other people on the board who signed off on this knowing he was in charge of those projects. I trust Chris owns a house so I think somehow we as the community should be able to get the money back from his possible fraud with proceeds of crime act…
I also smell a rat with the timing of closing the charity and transfer of the Ledward Centre and magazine just before the report is published…..
I wonder if a line or paragraph has dropped out of this piece – because it quotes a ‘Mr Pumm’, without saying who he is.
I also wish Chris Gull a speedy recovery, and would point out he took on all the charity work eventually running the Rainbow Fund, as a retirement job, and then had to deal with the Covid lockdown years. On top of that, Chris stepped up to fill a second LGBTQ+ community role after the death of James Ledward – a much-respected man who originally owned and edited Scene Magazine.
The Ledward centre was set up in James Ledward’s memory, and we all hope it will go on to become the success he envisioned, as an LGBTQ+ community base in the heart of our city centre.
Presumably, the underlying issue with the Rainbow Fund was when its income dropped, during the Covid lockdowns. Pride was cancelled one year, and for two years the pubs and bars were unable to hold their usual number of fundraising benefits, so the income stream to the Rainbow Fund temporarily faltered.
The need was still there to keep the Ledward Centre project going, plus Scene magazine would have seen its advertising revenues tumble. Magazine publishing is also a declining industry, where the revenues now come online and in different ways from commercial advertising, and so Scene Magazine will have had to adapt to this new age. Chris Gull found himself in a position where he had to make some difficult financial decisions on behalf of both these operations, and he has since put up his hand to say he got it wrong.
There is no suggestion that any decisions made by Mr Gull were for personal financial gain, and hopefully the Charity Commission will in time reveal what went wrong.
In the meantime, it’s great news that the LGBTQ+ community fundraising is now back underway, and under a new umbrella organisation.
Replying to my own comment:
Thanks for adding the missing line:
“The new CEO, former councillor Leslie Pumm, is also now an interim director.” [ of the Pride Community Foundation, or ‘PCF’ . ]
We now know who Mr Pumm is, and I wish him well in this important job.
Get well soon Mr Gull.
I find it strange that others in the Rainbow Fund did not question why such large amounts were being given to projects that Mr Gull was heavily involved with. Transparency and publicity was never one of their strong points.