By Murray Hunter
CHARITIES based in the United Kingdom (UK), especially those with privileged Royal Charters or Royal Patrons, were considered some of the most ethical organisations in the world.
However, recently the Malala Fund made the news, smearing the immaculate reputations of British charities.
The Malala Fund (Malala Yousafzai’s charity) has faced recent online scrutiny and accusations of limited direct spending in Afghanistan, high executive compensation and questions over impact versus overheads, with critics claiming little went to on-the-ground schools there.
Very sadly, the Malala Fund is not just one British-based charity in isolation.
The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) is a Royal Charity where several issues regarding their activities and cash movements do not appear to add up.
The CMI traces its origins to the post-World War II effort to rebuild British industry.
In 1945, a government committee chaired by Sir Clive Baillieu recommended creating a central body for management standards. This led to the founding of the British Institute of Management (BIM) in 1947.
The BIM introduced the UK’s first Diploma in Management Studies in 1951 and, in 1987, co-authored influential reports on management education that spurred the creation of national competency-based standards through the Management Charter Initiative.
In 1992, the BIM merged with the Institution of Industrial Managers to form the Institute of Management.
In 2002, the organisation received a Royal Charter from the Privy Council, adopting its present name, the Chartered Management Institute or CMI and gaining the exclusive right to award Chartered Manager status.
Through the 2000s, it expanded its qualifications, affiliated centres and professional designations while operating as the recognised standard-bearer for management practice in the UK.
Ann Francke was appointed Chief Executive in June 2012, when the organisation developed international businesses, which did not fit into traditional concepts of what a charity should be.
Today, the CMI is a Royal Charity, with a trading company and two associated foreign companies attached to the “group”.
The financial accounts in the annual reports are merged into a single set of accounts.
The CMI Royal Charity, according to the accounts and annual reports, has no shareholders, owners or beneficiaries.
The ultimate level of governance, transparency and responsibility rests with a board of trustees.
Ironically, CMI, being a UK £35 million turnover business, has no trustees with any publicly disclosed background in charities.
Rather, the Board of Trustees is made up of people involved in commercial recruitment and training, such as James Reed, its Chairman and Professor Tim Stewart, Vice Chancellor of BPP University, a private university notable for high numbers of foreign students.
Its Board also includes people in law and international finance such as Tamara Box and even Matt Elliot from the banking sector.
Some current and former employees of CMI have taken to social media to share their experiences about CMI’s commercial culture. There are no obvious working practices of a charity within the organisation.
to the informants, there is an extreme power distance inside the organisation, which in their opinion has led to a high personnel turnover.
This leads to important questions about what the CMI actually does.
For many decades, the CMI appears to have been primarily involved in selling certificates in management and leadership throughout the UK.
Over the last decade, under the stewardship of Ann Francke, the CMI has spread its sales network to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and even as far as Australasia.
In 2019, the CMI set up a locally registered company in Malaysia and, just recently, an office in Dubai, which appears to be its next target market.
While within the UK, CMI certificates are accredited by four major accreditation agencies; this has not been the case overseas.
The CMI has also become a self-proclaimed accreditation body in some jurisdictions, which conflicts with its Royal Charter and is now selling Chartered Fellow memberships across international markets in the guise of qualifications.
Based on its activities, annual reports and social media presence, the CMI appears to be totally focused upon commercial operations in markets where there are established commercial competitors, but due to the privilege of being a Royal Charity, it is totally exempt from paying tax.
This gives CMI a massive unfair advantage over competitors.
Conclusion
The CMI is a “charity” that clearly has no direct owners or beneficiaries, except for some key staff who are being paid several times higher than charity industry averages. Its Board of Trustees is increasingly dominated by vested interests who leverage the esteem of their position for their own commercial training outfits.
Two corroborative sources have indicated that the charity is under investigation for tax avoidance and an extraordinary audit is currently being undertaken by authorities for the possible misuse of charity funds for commercial purposes.
The writer has contacted CMI lawyers Mischon de Reya on this matter, but at the time of writing, after almost one month, there has been no reply.
The CMI and its trustees, some of whom have prestigious roles with private employers or links to government, have an extra duty of care to advise the public of their activities and status and to uphold the highest levels of ethics, integrity and transparency due to them being a Royal Charity.
However, the CMI has chosen the path of placing whistleblowers under SLAPP actions, spending over £500,000 on legal action.
The CMI auditor in the latest 2026 Annual Report has mentioned that there are high amounts of undisclosed legal fees paid out by CMI, even though the latest and previous annual reports have failed to mention any legal actions explicitly.
The CMI has been escaping the public scrutiny that other commercial entities in the UK are routinely subject to.
Even the UK Charities Commission has allegedly refused to investigate reported abuses of its charity status.
The writer can only speculate that as a Royal Charity, the CMI is enjoying the protection of HRH Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh.
But as scrutiny of the Royal family increases, this protection may prove short-lived and even damaging to everyone concerned if the true nature of commercial activities, tax avoidance and governance failures become contagious among its trustees and business partners. – November 11, 2026
