Unaware of what was going on at the charity Fashion For Relief, which she founded in 2005 and combined fashion and charity, Naomi Campbell said she had in her first statement after the revelation that the money the charity received for charity was being “eaten up” in five-star hotels, spas and… cigarettes.
“We are also looking into it as I had no control over the organisation. I entrusted its operation to a lawyer so now we are looking into the whys and hows as everything I do and all the money I make goes to charity,” the former model said on Thursday night from Paris where she was in Paris for the awarding of her membership of the Order of Arts and Letters.
The 54-year-old former model was visibly moved by the honour without being able to hold back tears at any point.
According to an investigation by the committee that audited Campbell’s charity, it found that of the £4.8 million raised for Fashion For Relief between 2016 and 2022, only £389,000 was given to charity.
Following the results of the investigation, the committee that oversees charities in England and Wales banned Campbell from running a charity for five years and two other people were also banned with her.
Fashion For Relief’s mission was to grant to other organisations and provide resources to respond to global disasters in order to alleviate poverty and promote health and education.
In this context it hosted fundraising events in Cannes or London.
But that was just window dressing. Research, which began in 2021, found that only a small percentage of the money went to good causes.
Specifically, from April 2016 to July 2022, just 8.5% of the charity’s total spending was on charitable grants, or $389,000 of the £4.8 million it raised.
The investigation found that the charity funds went to, among other things, paying for Campbell’s stay at a five-star hotel in Cannes, France.
In one case in 2018, a flight costing €14,800 was recorded from London to Nice to transport artwork and jewellery to a fundraising event in Cannes. A further €9,400 was spent from charity funds for three nights in a five-star hotel for Campbell.
The supermodel also spent nearly 7,940 euros alongside her hotel stay, which was paid for by the charity. The spending included spa treatments, room service and the purchase of cigarettes and hotel merchandise.
The committee that carried out the investigation says it has recovered £344,000, as well as protecting a further £98,000 of charity funds. It adds that it saw no evidence that managers took steps to ensure that fundraising methods were in the charity’s best interests or that the money it spent was reasonable in relation to the income it generated.
In early 2024 Campbell’s foundation was dissolved and removed from the charity register.
