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Hedge fund charity overtakes Wellcome Trust in Charity 100 Index ranking

Finance | Gareth Jones | 1 Apr 2010

Hedge fund supremo Chris Hohn’s charity the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation has continued its unstoppable growth into one of the biggest UK charities by income, overtaking the Wellcome Trust to become the fourth-largest constituent of the Charity 100 Index.

Following the Charity 100 Index’s annual constituent review this month, CIFF has moved up five places to rub shoulders, in income terms, with the National Trust and Wellcome Trust.

Membership of the Charity 100 Index is based upon average income over the last three annual accounts, and on this basis CIFF has an average of £351.4m.  Measured on the most recent year’s income alone, it would be the UK’s second-biggest charity.

CIFF has had total income of £499.3m, £324.5m and £230.4m in the years ending August 2008, 2007 and 2006 respectively.  It is a relative newcomer to the UK charity scene, having been registered in 2002, and its mission is to improve the lives of children living in poverty in developing countries.

The charity receives all the profits from Hohn’s TCI (The Children’s Investment Fund) hedge fund, and also gets 0.5 per cent of the assets under the management of TCI each year.

If the performance of the fund exceeds 11 per cent it receives a further 0.5 per cent of the value of the fund.

The Foundation first entered the Charity 100 Index at number 29 two years ago.

However, despite receiving £499m in the year to August 2008, CIFF awarded grants totalling just £29m throughout the year, though this was an increase of more than 180 per cent on the previous year.

The Foundation says it “remains a priority” to put in place “robust management systems and financial controls which will be equal to the Foundation’s grantmaking capacity”.  Until such infrastructure, and staffing, is in place, grants will not match income levels.  But eventually it hopes to apply all unrestricted donations to grant programmes.

Nuffield Health, Cancer Research UK and the National Trust have retained the top three positions in the table since last year.

Two charities drop out of Charity 100 Index

At the other end of the ranking, the Children’s Society and the Imperial War Museum both dropped out of the Charity 100 Index and into the Charity 250 Index, after failing to keep pace with increases for similarly-sized charities.

Though the Children’s Society’s income hit a peak of £43.9m in the year ending March 2008, this fell back to £40m the following year, hit by declines in donations, legacies, gift aid and investment income.  

Subscribers to Charity Finance or civilsociety.co.uk can click here to see the full Charity 100 Index table and analysis.

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