A Kew Gardens fundraising charity has transferred more than £20m and will now close as it folds into its larger partner organisation.
Trustees of the Foundation and Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Kew Foundation) decided in February to close the registered charity and merge into the larger RBG Kew organisation.
The Kew Foundation, set up in 1990, focused on raising money through legacy fundraising and investment management for exempt charity RBG Kew.
Its trustees decided that it should merge into the main charity, which will take over its activities, to streamline the organisations’ governance and decision-making to “make more effective use of legator and donor funds”.
The Kew Foundation’s £20.2m full net assets transferred to RBG Kew on 1 March as well as its legal responsibility as corporate trustee of the £3m Orchid Fund permanent endowment.
As a pre-condition of the assets transfer, a final £5m foundational grant was made to the Seeds Future Fund, a £30m initiative set up by RBG Kew last year.
Trustee changes
The Kew Foundation had no paid members of staff but received £2.73m in legacy donations and £647,000 of investment income in the year to March 2026.
Furthermore, the foundation had been notified of 48 legacies estimated to be worth £6.42m at the time of the assets transfer.
Following the publication of the foundation’s accounts for 2025-26, trustees Jan Pethick, Kristina Kenworthy, Jane Reeves and Jantiene Klein Roseboom van der Veer all stepped down.
New trustees are expected to be appointed in their place to be responsible for the winding up of the charity, as detailed in the transfer agreement.
Steve Almond, a trustee of both the foundation and RBG Kew did not take part in the decision to transfer the assets as his positions represented a conflict of interest, the Kew Foundation’s accounts read.
“At the point of the transfer, the key identified risks for the Kew Foundation charity included low or negative investment returns, decreased legacy income, and reputational risks associated with legators,” the 2025-26 accounts for RBG Kew read.
“These risks are now managed by RBG Kew with mitigations in place to manage risks, including regular review of investment performance, a focus on increasing the legacy pipeline and regular reporting and due diligence on legators.”
