Regulatory inquiry into Effective Ventures Foundation UK

# Regulatory inquiry into Effective Ventures Foundation UK
By Howie_Lempel
Published: 2023-01-30
Earlier today, the Charity Commission for England and Wales [announced a statutory inquiry](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/regulator-investigates-charity-linked-to-failed-cryptocurrency-platform) into Effective Ventures Foundation UK (EVF UK). We issued a [short statement](https://ev.org/ops/statement-on-charity-commission-inquiry-into-effective-ventures-foundation-uk/) acknowledging the inquiry. As the [recently appointed Interim CEO of EVF UK](https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/GoWNiPbrEb6NHD3MF/announcing-interim-ceos-of-evf), I also wanted to say a bit more to the community. 

As you might imagine, writing this post feels a bit tough for a bunch of reasons. It’s a sensitive topic, there are lots of complicated legal issues to consider, and it’s generally a bit weird to write publicly about an agency that’s in the middle of investigating you (it feels a little like talking about someone in the third person without acknowledging that they’re sitting at the dinner table right next to you). One thing I really want to do is avoid speaking for the Charity Commission, which makes me hesitant to speculate too much about why exactly they chose to begin this inquiry, etc. 

But I’m going to do my best to figure out what’s helpful to say here.

### Summary

*   Effective Ventures Foundation UK (EVF UK) is the UK charity which, together with Effective Ventures Foundation US (EVF US), acts as host and fiscal sponsor for a wide range of projects including CEA, 80,000 Hours, and [others](https://ev.org/organisations/).
*   Following the FTX collapse, the Charity Commission for England and Wales has opened an inquiry into EVF UK’s financial situation and its governance and administration by its trustees.
*   We were not particularly surprised by the Commission’s decision to open an inquiry.[^m2r42j39mur] As it notes, some FTX-linked entities (such as the FTX Foundation) and related individuals were major donors to EVF UK, and there was the potential for a variety of conflicts of interest with respect to governance (e.g., two of EVF UK’s board members were affiliated with FTX Foundation). Especially given the scale and profile of the FTX collapse, it makes sense that the Commission wants extra visibility into whether we’re appropriately protecting our property, managing potential conflicts of interest, and generally complying with UK charity law.
*   The UK board and executive team are cooperating in full and the Commission has confirmed that the trustees have fulfilled their duties by filing a serious incident report.
*   Sharing updates in the midst of an ongoing inquiry is legally complicated, so there will probably be some limitations to the updates we’ll provide before the inquiry is complete. But we’ll do our best to share whatever (if anything) is legally sensible.

### What is Effective Ventures Foundation UK?

For context, EVF UK is the UK char

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