City Bridge Foundation marks giving £895 million over 30 years
Howard Lake | 18 May 2026 | News
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.
Advertisement
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 (26 March 2025)
- 900-year-old charity brings brands together under new name (28 September 2023)
- City Bridge Foundation reopens small grants programme – & more funding news (3 October 2023)
Related posts
City Bridge Foundation announces social justice fund in new 10-year funding policy
London charity funder appoints poet-in-residence
Vision Foundation launches fund to support London’s blind & partially sighted
New £17mn sport & physical activity fund will support London children & young people
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.