Why Naomi Campbell’s A-list charity shut up shop in the UK

The celebrities were A-list, the clothes sensational and the champagne flowed by the gallon, it was said. As Naomi Campbell’s mother, Valerie, remarked at one of the glitzy galas held by her supermodel daughter’s charity, “she always puts on a good show”.

This much seems indisputable. Since founding Fashion For Relief in 2005, Campbell has hosted a series of charity fashion shows in its name, to raise funds and awareness for various causes.

Household names are among the models who’ve walked the runways: Kate Moss, Beyoncé, Jane Fonda – and, more improbably perhaps, Cilla Black, Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and Princess Beatrice. Queen Rania of Jordan was pictured at a Fashion For Relief gala in 2017.

Guests have included some of fashion’s biggest hitters, as well as celebrities such as Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman and Justin Bieber.

Over the years, Fashion For Relief events have rolled into a range of international locations: besides London there have been galas in Moscow, Mumbai and Cannes; in Dar es Salaam and New York.

But this week it emerged that the high-profile charity is no longer operating in the UK and has been removed from Britain’s public register of charities.

This comes amid an ongoing inquiry by the Charity Commission into Fashion For Relief’s financial management and governance. The watchdog is looking into whether those in control have properly exercised their legal duties and responsibilities under charity law; payments made to a trustee for services provided to the charity; the level of charitable expenditure; the charity’s failure to file statutory returns on time; and whether there has been misconduct or mismanagement by those in control.

If the winding up of Fashion For Relief’s British operations seems like a surprising exit from the country for a charity fronted by one of British fashion’s biggest stars, the decision was in fact made by those involved a number of years ago.

So how did Fashion For Relief, with its seemingly endless supply of glamorous supporters, end up leaving these shores?

Its website proudly avows its dedication to “improving the lives of those living in adversity, by uniting the fashion industry as a force for good.” It has raised more than $15 million for good causes around the world, it says. Since its inception, it has helped those impacted by Ebola, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Hurricane Katrina and the conflict in Syria. It has raised money for these and other causes via ticketed fashion shows also featuring fundraising auctions.

London-born Campbell, 53, has cited Nelson Mandela as her inspiration to launch the charity. “He always said to use my voice to speak out about things that I care about, to speak up and do something,” she explains on the charity’s site.

Following the launch, its first fashion show raised funds for Katrina victims in New Orleans. In 2007, it targeted its support closer to home, raising a reported £1 million for victims of that summer’s floods in Gloucestershire. In 2008, its gala was held at London’s Natural History Museum, where Campbell opened the show in a peacock-feathered vintage dress. Vivienne Westwood and Jo Wood were among the big names on the catwalk, while Princess Eugenie and Sarah Brown, wife of then prime minister Gordon Brown, were in the front row. The White Ribbon Alliance, which advocates for girls’ and women’s health, was that year’s beneficiary.

A star-studded 2011 Fashion For Relief event at the Cannes Film Festival helped raise £191,000 in support of the Japanese Red Cross’s relief efforts, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

“The charity events were huge,” says a fashion source. “Huge points in the calendar with a phenomenal budget and all Naomi’s star friends showing up.”

When Campbell brought the show back to London in 2019, to raise money for the Mayor’s Fund for London at a British Museum event, it was hailed as a homecoming.

But the following year, questions began to be raised. In September 2020, the charity watchdog opened a compliance case, during which it identified a range of regulatory concerns relating to the charity’s governance and finance. This included consistent late filing of accounts and lack of evidence to show that conflicts of interest were being managed.

In November 2021, the Commission announced it had “escalated its engagement with the charity” to an inquiry. Last February, it appointed interim managers, to the exclusion of the original trustees – of whom Campbell was one.

Around the same time, the Guardian reported that the Mayor’s Fund for London claimed it was owed £50,000 from a pop-up shop created by the charity two years earlier to raise money for it. The Mayor’s Fund reportedly made a “serious incident” notification to the Charity Commission. Fashion for Relief said at the time it had hoped to “donate” £50,000 to the Mayor’s Fund and still hoped to “honour the aspiration” to do so.

The Mayor’s Fund has been paid all it was owed, says a Fashion For Relief insider now.

But questions have also been raised over a perceived mismatch between the charity’s expenditure on starry events and the amount it has actually donated to good causes. Charity Commission figures show that, in 2019, Fashion For Relief’s gross income totalled £1.72 million. Its total expenditure was £1.80 million, while its expenditure on charitable activities was only £5,520. Fashion For Relief says it raised and donated £450,000 for Save the Children and £100,000 for The Mayor’s Fund in 2019.

The insider at the charity suggests it is misleading to focus on these numbers, as Fashion For Relief doesn’t only raise charitable funds directly; it also generates income for other charities indirectly, by raising awareness of causes. Invitations to gala events show guests how to donate directly to whichever charity Fashion For Relief is supporting. It is therefore hard to estimate exactly how much revenue has been generated for charitable causes by Fashion For Relief’s activities.

The insider explains that the decision to wind up UK operations and move to the US around 2021 was made on the advice of lawyers. The US would be a better, more flexible jurisdiction in which to operate, they were told. As a result, the charity is now based in New York.

A spokesman has said: “The winding up of Fashion For Relief was a decision made by the trustees three years ago. It was not forcibly closed. Fashion For Relief operates in America and will continue to do fundraising initiatives worldwide.”

It is not known when the Charity Commission will publish its report on the findings of its inquiry.

A spokesman for the watchdog says: “We can confirm that the Commission-appointed interim managers of Fashion for Relief have applied for its removal from the register of charities on the basis that it no longer operates. This process has now been completed and is reflected on the public register. Our statutory inquiry into the charity is ongoing and, as such, we cannot comment further at this time.”

Meanwhile, Campbell’s status as a philanthropist seems likely to endure.

In June this year, a new exhibition will open at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London entitled Naomi: In Fashion. It promises to celebrate, among other things, the charitable work of a supermodel who has lent her support to a string of causes over her decades-long career.

“The exhibition…includes Campbell’s activism and philanthropy, which often intersects with her work as a fashion model,” says a V&A spokesman. “She has advocated for equity from an early age.”