St James Place Charitable Foundation reaches £100m milestone in money raised
Melanie May | 21 August 2020 | News
The St James’s Place Charitable Foundation has now raised £100 million for charities through fundraising and corporate matching since it was established in 1992.
The St James’s Place Charitable Foundation focuses on supporting smaller grassroots charities through a range of grant programmes, and has four core funding themes: helping children and young people who have a physical or learning disability or are disadvantaged, hospices, cancer support charities, and mental health.
The community of St. James’s Place, including employees and advisers, undertake a range of fundraising activities throughout the year, and 87% give a regular monthly gift to the Foundation. Every pound raised is matched by St. James’s Place. Many also give their time and skills to charities in their local areas, providing over 14,000 hours in 2019.
Over the past 28 years, the Foundation has granted over £96 million to charities, with £13.9 million granted in 2019 – the largest annual amount to date. It provides funding and support to over 900 charities every year, with 88% of funding going to charities in the UK and 12% overseas. Over 1.8 million people have been directly supported and a further 5.3 million indirectly.
The Charitable Foundation has so far given £2 million of support to charities through the pandemic. This includes £450,000 awarded to the National Emergencies Trust, £250,000 to NHS Charities Together and a £50,000 donation to the Trussell Trust.
St. James’s Place also gave a further £100,000 to the Trussell Trust to support additional infrastructure changes to cover the significant increase in demand caused by the pandemic. The support to the sector so far during this period has helped charities to adapt their delivery methods, develop new initiatives and provide emergency funding.
Catherine Ind, Head of the St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation said:
“The events of this year and the pandemic have really shone a light on the charitable sector, the importance of the work it does and the ongoing challenges it faces for funding. Charities are not only suffering from the impact of lost income due to fundraising activities being restricted, but also an increasing demand for their services to support the additional challenges caused by the pandemic.
“The support of the St. James’s Place community is invaluable in enabling us to make grants to some amazing charities in the UK and overseas, who now more than ever need our support.”
Andrew Croft, CEO at St. James’s Place, added:
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“The Charitable Foundation has always been a very special part of St. James’s Place and its continued growth shows just how much it means to our community, epitomising the founding principle on which it was formed – to give back and make a positive and lasting difference to people’s lives.
“It’s a special moment to reach the £100 million milestone and I am very proud of the continued enthusiasm and commitment by the St. James’s Place community to give their time, money and support to the Foundation and the many fantastic causes it helps on a daily basis.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.