Family fortunes
Howard Lake | 27 June 2000 | News
Which is likely to be the wealthiest surname on your donor database?
Which is likely to be the wealthiest surname on your donor database? According to Julia Stewart, writing in today’s The Independent, it is Patel. “If your surname is Patel you are seven times more likely to be a multi-millionaire than if your name is Smith,” she writes.
This conclusion is based on figures from annual Sunday Times Wealth List compiler Dr Philip Beresford. He has 37 Patels and 50 Smiths on his list of multi-millionaires worth over £5 million, yet there are just 36,000 Patels on the electoral roll compared to 360,000 Smiths. Beresford is reported as saying there are a further 500 Patels who have made their first million.
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Topping the list of the richest Patels in the UK are Vijay and his brother Bikhu, CEO and MD of Waymead Healthcare Plc.
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.