# City Bridge Foundation marks giving £895 million over 30 years

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2026/05/18/city-bridge-foundation-marks-giving-895-million/
- Published: 2026-05-18T09:21:38+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**City Bridge Foundation has marked 30 years as London’s largest independent charitable
funder, using its anniversary event, a board dinner held on Tower Bridge, to reaffirm
its long-standing commitment to social justice and partnership. **

The Mayor of London, **Sir Sadiq Khan**, joined the celebration as a guest speaker.

The Foundation, which was originally established almost 900 years ago to maintain
London’s bridges, uses surplus funds from its £1.5 billion endowment to support 
civil society. 

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Since 1995, CBF has awarded **more than £895 million to over 9,000 organisations
through more than 12,000 grants **to tackle inequality and injustice across Greater
London. This figure includes **£200 million** of additional funding provided during
the Covid-19 pandemic.

## Changing systems

Paul Martinelli, Chair of the City Bridge Foundation Board, addressed the stark 
contrast in the capital: “London is a city of immense power, diversity and possibility–
yet inequality and poverty remain stark. That contradiction is unacceptable.”

## Standing with Londoners

He announced that the Foundation is now “increasingly focused on how we can help
change the systems that keep people marginalised,” while continuing to respond to
urgent community needs. This new direction is encapsulated in the funding policy,
_Standing with Londoners_. The policy aims to create a fairer London by addressing
structural causes of inequality across four long-term visions: access to justice,
climate and environmental justice, economic justice, and racial justice.

Mayor Sadiq Khan congratulated the Foundation on its “enormously positive difference
to life in our city and communities.”

The Foundation is demonstrating its commitment to systems change through significant
partnership work, including an investment of over £10 million committed to suicide
prevention. It also funds the new _Making London Work for All_ initiative, which
seeks to address insecure employment through accreditations for Living Wage, Living
Hours, and Living Pension.

 * **[City Bridge Foundation announces social justice fund in new 10-year funding policy](https://fundraising.co.uk/2025/03/26/city-bridge-foundation-announces-social-justice-fund/)(
   26 March 2025)
 * **[900-year-old charity brings brands together under new name](https://fundraising.co.uk/2023/09/28/900-year-old-charity-brings-brands-together-under-new-name/)(
   28 September 2023)**
 * **[City Bridge Foundation reopens small grants programme – & more funding news](https://fundraising.co.uk/2023/10/03/city-bridge-foundation-reopens-small-grants-programme-more-funding-news/)(
   3 October 2023)**