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Major family giving has tended to be under the radar in the UK, in stark contrast to the US, where there is long-standing appreciation of family foundations as a distinct and substantial resource for community action, and a lasting legacy of giving.
But a stream of new UK charitable family foundations – for example Sainsbury, Foyle, Paul Hamlyn, Peter de Haan, Hunter, Volant, Shirley, Sutton, Vardy, Pears amongst others – is demonstrating their ongoing popularity. Sixty new family foundations were established in 2006 alone, according to the Charity Commission. Is a re-discovery of UK family foundation philanthropy under way?
My new report, Family Foundation Philanthropy 2008, supported by the Pears Foundation and published by Cass Business School has, for the first time, measured and compared family foundation giving in the UK with the rest of Europe and the US. The research focussed on the largest 100 family foundations because it was feasible to collect reasonably comparable giving data on them. Results show that annual average family foundation giving in the UK is £9.1m. The average for the rest of Europe is almost one and half times this figure at £12.6m, and the average for the US is three and a half times at £30.5m.
However, the largest 100 UK family foundations make a much higher contribution both to total foundation giving and to GDP than those in the US and the rest of Europe. And the research also found that this was due mainly to the contributions of a small number of very large UK foundations, with the UK lacking the mass of relatively modest family foundations who swell US giving.
We still know little about national differences in giving. Many point to the particularly beneficial personal income tax-breaks on charitable gifts in the US, where major philanthropy is expected and celebrated, while European traditions have emphasised greater public redistribution of wealth. Higher average national US wealth may be significant too.
But there are also marked variations in support for family foundation philanthropy. Traditionally UK interest has mainly been confined to a few private family financial advisers, and Campden Conferences has run Family Philanthropy Forums for some years. US family foundations benefit from a much higher profile, with the Foundation Centre’s annual publication of statistics, donor support through initiatives like Changemakers’ Family Foundation Initiative, the National Center for Family Philanthropy, and the family foundation conferences and publications of the Council on Foundations.
However, important new UK donor services are emerging through, for example, the Institute for Philanthropy which runs The Philanthropy Workshop (TPW), New Philanthropy Capital, which guides donors in choosing beneficiaries, and private bankers such as Coutts, UBS, and the Swiss-based Family Business Network, and IMD-Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch, who established the Distinguished Family Business Award in 2006. Hopefully the creation of a greater climate of interest and support will see future family foundation philanthropy grow. It is intended that Family Foundation Philanthopy 2008 will be published as an annual benchmark.
Cathy Pharoah is Co-Director of the Centre for Giving and Philanthropy Research at CASS Business School. Visit the CASS website for the full research report or for details of the Cass Post-Graduate Certificate in Grantmaking Management.
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