The 25 wealthiest charities in England and Wales have more money than all others on the Charity Commission register, according to new figures published last month.
The data, drawn from annual returns submitted to the Charity Commission, shows that charities in England and Wales have total long-term assets of £123.4bn, of which the richest 25 charities hold £62.6bn.
The Wellcome Trust is by far the richest charity in the sector, with assets of £23.6bn, up from £20.6bn the previous year, despite total expenditure of £1.3bn.
In second place is the Garfield Weston Foundation, which saw its wealth fall from £12.7bn to £9.9bn. Garfield Weston’s assets are unusually volatile because unlike other big charities it does not own a diversified portfolio. Instead its main investment is a majority share in a single FTSE 100 company, Associated British Foods, and its wealth fluctuates with ABF’s share price.
In third place is the Church Commissioners, which is worth £7.2bn, up from £6.3bn in the last year.
The richest charities saw their total assets rise by just under 8 per cent this year, in line with the sector as a whole. This bucks a trend of recent years, which has seen the biggest charities get richer far faster than the rest. Excluding Garfield Weston, however, the other large charities saw their wealth rise by around 16 per cent, twice as fast as the rest of the sector.
The top ten charities, by total assets, are as follows.
- £23.6bn - Wellcome Trust
- £9.9bn - Garfield Weston Foundation
- £7.2bn - Church Commissioners for England
- £3.9bn - The Children's Investment Fund Foundation
- £2.8bn - The Leverhulme Trust
- £1.4bn - Bridge House Estates
- £1.3bn - Trinity College, Cambridge
- £1.2bn - National Trust
- £1.0bn - Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
- £979m - The Henry Smith Charity
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