Cancer charity gives less than 5% of donations

A registered cancer charity has donated less than five per cent of the $1.1 million it has collected from New Zealanders over four years.

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has launched a review of the Cancer Research Charitable Trust, which pays its staff a commission of up to 40 per cent to collect funds and hand out information door-to-door.

The trust's financial records show it has donated $48,563.25 towards cancer research between July 2007 and June 2011 - only 4.2 per cent of the $1.1 million it received in that period.

According to the DIA's charities register website the rest of the funds went towards wages and administrative costs, with no funds at all going towards cancer research in two of the four years for which records are available.

Fundraising Institute chief executive James Austin said he was strongly opposed to any charity paying its collectors a commission, and he believed the trust's figures were troubling.

"On those figures, I would be deeply concerned over the way it's been processed and their expenses. I think it requires investigation."

The charity's listed officer, Gold Coast lawyer Troy Manhire, was investigated for fraud in South Australia in 2009 after pocketing a salary of close to A$500,000 from the Cancer and Bowel Research Association.

No charges were laid but the charity was stripped of its licence. It was reinstated by the Office of the Liquor and Gambling Commissioner on the strict condition that Mr Manhire was not involved in its management "in any way".

Mr Manhire has defended the amount of money the trust granted to research projects in New Zealand, saying that was just one of its objectives.

The trust had shifted its focus several years ago towards awareness and prevention campaigns, he said.

"It's a matter for the organisation, what objectives they choose to spend the money on. Some years there is more focus on different areas of objectives."

The trust's records show some $332,000 has gone towards awareness and prevention campaigns over four years - almost $285,000 of which went on personnel costs.

The rest went towards advertising and sponsorship ($18,139.91), vehicles and travel ($17,801.37), website maintenance ($4695.97), the Embarrassment Can Kill programme ($4500) and printing ($1793.98).

Mr Manhire said the awareness campaigns involved door-to-door collectors handing out information and speaking to people, which had a "phenomenal reach" of tens of thousands of people each year.

Asked if it was fair to assume from the trust's name that donations would go towards cancer research, Mr Manhire said: "I can't control what people might assume."

He would consider changing the trust's name.

"You're suggesting to me that the name is apt to mislead, and I take that on board ... obviously the last thing that any organisation wants is that people in the community feel confused."

Mr Manhire said numerous charities paid fundraising staff a commission.

The trust's New Zealand coordinator, Neil Armstrong, said it had collectors in the South Island, Hamilton and Auckland who worked around the country.

The South Island collector was based in Australia and came to New Zealand at his own expense each year.

Mr Armstrong said three staff, including himself, had been spoken to by police after members of the public raised questions about whether it was a legitimate charity. Nothing came of those conversations because the trust was registered with the Charities Commission, now part of DIA.

He said the trust's administrative costs were "typical of any charity".

It had closed its Symonds St office in Auckland because the overheads became too high when the recession hit four years ago. It was now operated from Mr Armstrong's house.

Mr Armstrong said the trust had to rely on paid workers, and even then it was a struggle to get people who wanted to work.

In the last four years, the trust has donated $20,472 to Otago University and $28,091.25 to the Malaghan Institute, an independent medical research centre based at Victoria University and registered as a charity.

The trust had pledged $60,000 to the Institute, according to a Victoria University press release at the time.

Public Fundraising Regulatory Association general manager Karen Ward said the trust was not registered with it, and she believed their tactics broke fundraising regulations.

- Additional reporting: Andrew Board of Nelson Weekly