Elton John among most generous UK donors, report reveals
Melanie May | 29 November 2018 | News
Lord Sainsbury is the most generous person in the UK, donating £2.58 billion between 2008-18, while Sir Richard Branson is 10th, and Elton John is the 13th, according to a report from gift giving website Activity Superstore.
Activity Superstore looked at the past 10 years of The Sunday Times Giving Lists to uncover the most generous people in the UK. Since 2008, £19.1 billion has been donated to charity by 50 philanthropists in the UK with supermarket owner, Lord Sainsbury, the most generous person in the country.
Sir Elton John features 13th on the top 20 list for total donations with £301 million in contributions. The most he has donated in one year was £41.9 million in 2008/9. In the last year he has donated £24.3 million. According to the data, he is the third most consistent giver in the country, featuring on The Sunday Times list for over 11 years. Charities include the Elton John Aids Foundation, The Elton John Sports Fund and The Royal Academy of Music. In November, he announced that he would give part of his fee from this year’s John Lewis Christmas ad to charity.
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The study also analysed the industry of each of the philanthropists that have featured in the last 10 years and shows that those working in finance, banking and hedge funding are the most generous. 19% of those that feature on all 10 years worth of Sunday Times giving lists work in finance/banking followed by property and construction, which takes up 12% of the list.
And, while only one woman appears in the top 20, the figures show that women are more generous with their wealth than men or couples.
However, from 2008 to 2018 the combined annual wealth of the top 50 philanthropists has increased by 47.2%, while donations from all data measured for the top 50 philanthropists has dropped by 19.8%.
Matt Davis at Activity Superstore said:
“The data shows that Sainsbury’s founder, Lord Sainsbury, is the most generous man in Britain after donating £2.58 billion to charity over the last decade. In total, £19.1 billion has been donated by the philanthropists between 2008 and 2018, which is enough to fund 44 hospitals, 100 libraries or 1,316 schools.
“It’s heart-warming to see some of the world’s biggest business people and celebrities give back to the community. However, the data shows that despite wealth increasing, donations are in fact in decline and because of this we, at Activity Superstore, are encouraging everyone to think about giving this Christmas.”Advertisement
Image by Mauge on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons: Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0).
- Lord Sainsbury becomes the UK’s first £1 billion charity donor (20 April 2009)
- A Better World is Possible: the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Social Progress (book)
- Top 100 family foundations gave £14 billion in 2008-09 (10 November 2010)
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.