The Jewish Leadership Council enjoyed a record level of income last year, collecting around £3,479,000 and producing a surplus, having notched up a deficit for the previous year.
The umbrella body for leading charities said 2018 was “dominated” by two “unplanned” activities: the Enough is Enough campaign against antisemitism in the Labour party, and the review into financial allegations against its former chief executive Jeremy Newmark.
An independent inquiry earlier this year criticised the trustee’s financial controls during Mr Newmark’s tenure and found it had incurred £111,734 of “potentially questionable expenditure” in the 15 months before he resigned in 2013.
The Charity Commission has now closed its case on the affair, the accounts stated.
The review had followed a series of JC articles based on what the JLC described as “an unauthorised leak of an internal report” from 2013.
The JLC says its results last year show “a material improvement” on 2017, producing a surplus of just under £165,000 compared with a deficit of £206,000 the year before.
Its rise in income - from £2,910,000 in 2017 - partly reflects its sponsorship of the Israel 70th anniversary celebration at the Royal Albert Hall.
The organisation acknowledged that 2018 marked the final year of three-year-funding pledges that had been previously been secured.
More than 80 per cent of its funding for its core work and projects came from 20 individual donors or foundations - compared with just under 20 per cent from subscriptions by its members organisations.
But it reported that it has since widened its funding base, raising more than a £1 million so far this year from 46 donors or charities.
Jonathan Goldstein, JLC chairman, said, the organisation has “continued to invest heavily in long term strategic priorities of our community, including in social care, political activity and defending our community against rising anti-Jewish racism within the Labour Party.
“I am delighted that we have increased the breadth of our donor base since becoming chair and proud of all that we have achieved to date.”
