Our endowment
The Foundation was established in 2004 with an initial investment of £25 million. Since then, we’ve awarded over £19 million in grants. As of 30 September 2024, the value of our investment portfolio stood at £35.5 million. Our financial aim is to achieve a total investment return that allows us to preserve – and ideally grow – the real value of our portfolio, so we can continue our work for generations to come and keep the value of our grants in line with inflation.
How we set our annual expenditure
Our Trustees are committed to sustaining The Foundation’s grantmaking indefinitely, but they also have the flexibility to use both income and capital to meet our goals. Historically, our portfolio has delivered an average annual return of 7%, with around 3% of this typically allocated to our grantmaking budget and approximately 1% is allocated to the running costs of The Foundation. We base this calculation on the average portfolio value over the previous four years.
Each year, the proposed spending level is reviewed with our investment managers and agreed by the Trustees at the September Board meeting. Our financial year runs from 1 October to 30 September. We review our grantmaking budget throughout the year and increase our expenditure whenever our portfolio allows. This approach is in line with our
Investment Policy which is reviewed by our Trustees every six months.
The budget for 2024-25 was initially set at £900,000. However, thanks to the positive growth of our portfolio in the months to January 2025, we were able to increase this year's grantmaking budget by £305,000 which allowed us to provide additional funding to our Hospice Care programme (totalling £495,000 this financial year in response to the exceptional demand received).
This year to date, we have awarded 101 grants for a total value of £1,045,000.
