100 leading UK philanthropists gave £2.493 bn, says Sunday Times Rich List
Howard Lake | 25 April 2010 | News
The 100 wealthiest people in Britain gave £2.493 billion to good causes to charity last year, according to The Sunday Times Giving List, published today as part of The Sunday Times Rich List.
The donations were give mostly in the financial year ending in April 2009. Although the total is a reduction of £324 million or 11.5% on the previous year’s total, it represents an increase in real terms given that the total value of the richest 1,000 had fallen by 37.4% in the same financial year.
The Giving List ranks the wealthiest people in Britain by the proportion of wealth given away. The top 30 on the list donated at least 3.2% of the wealth, down from the 4.5% achieved last year, but still more than the 3% donated by the top 30 in 2008. This year, the top 30 all donated at least £10 million each, and five each gave at least £100 million.
The Giving List was topped by London hedge fund manager Christopher Cooper-Hohn who gave £531.2 million. This is the third year in a row that he was led the Giving List, having put £1.1 billion into the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation run by his wife which aims to tackle issues such as malnutrition.
Overall the wealthiest 1,000 in Britain saw their wealth increase by 29.9% (£77.265 billion) in the past year to £335.5 billion.
The Rich List information will be published online on 2 May in an expanded and searchable format. This will feature the full 100 in the Giving List, plus the wealthiest 2,000 in Britain, those worth £30 million or more.
www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlist
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.