Rich List 2017
by their huge charity asset base, which rose
by 12.8% to a record-breaking £24.14bn.
Britain’s wealthiest had an extra £2.74bn
to spend on their causes last year.
With even more cash at their disposal,
the proportion of their wealth they are
giving away is growing, with education the
most favoured cause supported.
Sir James Dyson has pledged an initial
£15m towards the start-up costs of the
Dyson Institute of Engineering and
Technology on his Malmesbury campus
— the fi rst step on the road to creating a
full-blown university for design engineers.
Others, such as Jim Ratcliff e , who gave
£25m to the London Business School last
June , have backed existing institutions.
Top of the Giving List is Jamie Cooper,
co-founder with her ex-husband, Sir Chris
Hohn, of the Children’s Investment Fund
Foundation. The charity gave away £207m
last year, generated another £203m from
investments and has assets of £3.66bn.
“I’m not surprised the fi gures are record-
breaking — it mirrors my own experience,”
says Joanna Walker , the head of private
clients at the Charities Aid Foundation
(CAF), partner of The Sunday Times in
producing the Giving List.
“People are being more generous and
there are three main reasons,” she says.
“There is a wonderful general trend
upwards, which is fantastic. When people
understand and are more exposed to the
problems, it drives them to give.
“Second , there are more billionaires in
London than New York. The city is a hub
for extremely wealthy people and their
charity giving is very much linked to the
success of investment markets.
“Third , the richest are concerned about
the widening gap between the wealthy and
the poor. They can see and understand the
impact of austerity and its eff ect, and that is
driving philanthropists to give more.”
Walker suggests the political upheaval
caused by Brexit had increased charitable
action among CAF’s 250,000 donors. “People
on the ‘remain’ side are asking, ‘Why has
this happened? Why have people in areas
that rely on being part of Europe voted for
Brexit?’ It makes people think about what
issues are at play and what they can do.”
She adds that CAF sees the same tension
between public and private donations as
recorded by the Giving List. Philanthropists
can be very public about some of their
giving, but do much more behind closed
doors. Walker says: “People tell us their
giving is very personal. Their approach to
publicity can often depend on the cause
they are supporting.”
With 55 Rich Listers donating at least
£10m and 95 handing over a 1% chunk
of their wealth, Britain is clearly an
increasingly generous nation — but, like
George Michael, we just don’t always want
to talk about it nTEN OF THE BIGGEST CHARITABLE GIFTS Ranked by size of donation
THE SUNDAY TIMES GIVING LIST Ranked by proportion of wealth given
complete integrity — he wasn’t just doing
this for his platform. It made a deep impact
on policy makers,” Aslett says. “Then it was
obvious to us all that it was a huge waste of
resources for Elton not to do even more.”
Public or private, there cannot be a
wrong or right way to give : it is the getting
involved that matters. This year’s 2 60
Rich List philanthropists have broken
two of our records. They donated an
outstanding £3.196bn — up 20% on last
year’s total — which beats the levels of
giving prior to the fi nancial crash for the
fi rst time. Their generosity was bankrolledhas seen outstanding results with an
increasingly high-profi le approach. He
ranks 1 0th in this year’s Sunday Times
Giving List. The latest fi gures from the
UK arm of his Elton John Aids Foundation
show it gave away £9.7m in grants in the
past year. “Elton always realised it was
important for him to be public,” explains
Anne Aslett , the executive director of the
pop star’s foundation.
Aslett points out that Elton’s advocacy
stepped up a gear after his 2012 speech at
the International Aids Conference in
Washington. “People realised Elton hadDonation (£m) Recipient
1 Steve Morgan 226.4 The Steve Morgan Foundation
2 Jeremy Coller 41.1 Tel Aviv University
3 The late 6th Duke of Westminster 40.0 National and Defence Rehabilitation Centre
4 Jim Ratcliffe 25 .0 London Business School
5 Jamie Cooper and Sir Chris Hohn 20.9 Unicef
6 Lisbet Rausing 20.5 Yale University
7 Jonathan Ruffer 17.5 Eleven Arches (Kynren show)
8 Alan Parker 16.5 New Venture Fund (climate change)
9 Sir James Dyson 15.0 Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology
10 Sir Elton John 13.8 Elton John Aids Foundations (UK/US)Wealth (£m) Donations (£m) Giving Index (%) Main benefi c iaries
1 Jamie Cooper 337 204.9 60.81 Health, climate change, nutrition
2 Lord Sainsbury 560 196.3 35.05 Education, arts, humanitarian
3 Sir Clive Cowdery 147 44.7 30.43 Social, education, research
4 Steve Morgan 831 229.8 27.65 Community, children
5 Dame Janet de Botton 200 50.4 25.22 Medical research, education
6 Sir Chris Hohn 820 204.9 24.99 Health, climate change, nutrition
7 Lord Verjee 165 33.9 20.54 Education, children, social
8 Jeremy Coller 250 42.8 17.11 Education, Jewish, human rights
9 Jonathan Ruffer 406 49.8 12.27 Community, arts, social, heritage
10 Sir Elton John 290 34.3 11.82 HIV/Aids, medical, arts
11 Sir Mike Uren 140 13.6 9.74 Education, medical, environment
12 Sir David Samworth 575 48.0 8.34 Children, education, sport
13 David and Heather Stevens 190 14.9 7.85 Overseas, environment, children
14 Sir Paul Marshall 505 39.2 7.76 Education, children, religious
15 William Wright 69 5 .0 7.28 Religious
16 The Marquess of Bute 126 8.6 6.80 Mount Stuart and Bute Estates
17 Alan Parker 2,766 178.7 6.46 Environment, human rights
18 Nicolai Tangen 288 18.3 6.36 Arts, education, cultural
19 Henry Engelhardt 720 45.7 6.35 Medical, children, education
20 Sir Michael Moritz
and Harriet Heyman 2,629 165.3 6.29 Education, arts, medical
21 John Stone 185 11.3 6.13 Overseas, humanitarian, youth
22 Lord Rothschild 735 43.2 5.88 Heritage, education, environment
23 Lord Edmiston 1,020 58.9 5.78 Religious
24 Sir Martin Laing 162 9.0 5.58 Children, community, religious
25 Tony and Maureen Wheeler 112 6.2 5.54 Medical, cultural, educationGETTY
The Sunday Times Magazine • 149