These Were The 10 Biggest Gifts To Charity In 2014

Forsyth has been chief executive of Save the Children since 2010. He was previously director of strategic communications in Number 10 under Gordon Brown. He was also an adviser to Tony Blair, when he was Prime Minister, on environmental and international developments in the Number 10 policy unit. In 2012 Save The Children was forced to defend its first ever fund-raising campaign to alleviate poverty in Britain after Tory MPs claimed it reflected a “political agenda”.

Cafod director Chris Bain came to prominence when it emerged that he was sharing a flat rent-free with Paul Goggins, a Labour MP who was caught up in the Parliamentary expenses scandal. The pair had lived together for 11 years before the scandal broke in May 2009. Bain wrote an article on ConservativeHome in 2011 in which he said that “Labour’s world leadership and domestic commitment on international development could not be faulted” and urged David Cameron to “learn the lessons of the past decade” and ask why the scale of Tony Blair’s ambitions “were not achieved”.

Cafod head of media is controversial former Labour spin-doctor Damian McBride. Many of Cafod’s supporters think the charity should sever all ties with Gordon Brown’s former guard dog, once nicknamed McPoison. On 11 April 2009 he resigned his position after it emerged on a political blog that he and another prominent Labour Party supporter, blogger Derek Draper, had exchanged emails discussing the possibility of disseminating rumours McBride had fabricated about the private lives of some Conservative Party politicians and their spouses. The emails from McBride had been sent from his No 10 Downing Street email account.

The RSPCA's controversial former chief executive has now successfully re-entered politics – after winning a hotly-contested council by-election in his hometown of Malmesbury as an independent.The charity had been under attack from pro-hunt MPs and the Countryside Alliance for much of Grant's three-year tenure, after it began taking on private prosecutions of hunts it claimed had broken the 2004 ban on fox and deer hunting.Grant had been a lifelong member of the Liberal Party and its successor Liberal Democrats, and was its Chair of the South West England regional party in 2011. Grant had also advised successive Liberal Democrat leaders including Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, and in 2007 he was involved in Clegg's campaign to become party leader. In September 2013 the RSPCA deputy chairman Paul Draycott said that "too political" campaigns threatened the charity's future and could deter donors.

As well as being a member of the Foreign Secretary’s Human Rights Advisory Group, Sir Nick Young has been chairmen and chief executive of the British Red Cross since 2010.Under Labour he sat on the NHS Modernisation Board and the Office of the Third Sector advisory board between 2008 and 2011. He has spoken before of how charities enjoyed a golden age under Labour. He once said: “There was more money, more Government support and a greater sense of engagement in policy. The present Government talks about the big society, but there is not quite the same sense of involvement and certainly not the same amount of money.”

Under Stocking's leadership Oxfam officials made Labour "the most charitable administration ever." But the UK branch came under fire from other NGOs for becoming too close to Tony Blair's government, with one senior NGO official describing the relationship as "far too cosy". "They have incredible access, and what that has meant is that Oxfam are the ones who are always asked to speak for the whole development movement. And they differ on policy from other groups," he said. "They have decided that, in the longer term, their lot is best served by being in with Labour and they go out on a limb to endorse the government."

Matthew Frost has been the chief executive of Tearfund since October 2005. He previously worked as head of strategy at the Department for Education and Skills under Labour from 2004 and 2005, after a five year spell as a consultant at McKinsey.

Amnesty's founder, Peter Benenson, joined the Labour Party and stood - unsuccessfully - for election. Amnesty International was founded in London in July 1961 at a meeting of Benenson and six other men, who included a Tory, a Liberal and a Labour MP.