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Marketing Mo Farah Financial Report

Mo Farah reportedly closes charity as marketing and events spend bypasses investment in aid

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By Jessica Goodfellow, Media Reporter

May 29, 2016 | 3 min read

Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah has reportedly closed his charity after it emerged it had spent more on marketing and events than on delivering its promise to help children in Africa and the UK.

Mo Farah

The Mo Farah Foundation was set up by Farah and his wife Tania Nell in 2011 to combat poverty and provide aid to people in east Africa and the UK.

The Sun claims trustees of the charity, including Farah, Nell and journalist Rageh Omaar, agreed it could no longer deliver on its promise and have closed the charity on this premise.

According to the news report, the charity spent £105,876 on events, fundraising and marketing in 2015, £81,726 of which was spent on a high-profile fundraising ball at the Hurlingham Club, West London.

In the same period it spent £137,470 on staff and £40,763 on rent, office and admin costs.

In aid the charity spent £91,901 on projects in Africa and £24,659 in the UK.

It has been reported that the charity’s remaining funds following its closure will be transferred to another charity.

The charity faced backlash from a school in Nairobi, Kenya for “wasting their time” after the school claimed it received little more than 50 pairs of 20p socks to share among 900 kids, medicine and wristbands.

The charity responded to these complaints, saying it “delivered on its contractual commitments in full”.

It comes after Third Sector research released this week has found that a number of charitable foundations started by UK sports stars are failing to file their financials accounts on time.

The Mo Farah Foundation filed its accounts for the year to the end of March 2015 more than seven weeks late.

The Charity Commission, which regulates the administration and affairs of UK charities, is reportedly examining the foundation.

Marketing Mo Farah Financial Report

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