A foundation set up by the founder of the gambling firm Bet365 received £85m in donations from three companies that are part of the Bet365 group last year, according to accounts filed with Companies House this week.
Total funds for the Denise Coates Foundation now stand at nearly £337.8m, according to accounts for the year ending March 2018. £327m is held as an endowment, most of which is invested to generate income for the unrestricted fund.
Last year the Foundation's investment portfolio returned an investment gain of £8.7m, or 3.4 per cent, slightly ahead of the UK inflation rate of 2.4 per cent.
Two large donations
Two companies that are part of the Bet365 Group, of which Coates is joint chief executive, gave large donations to the foundation in the year to 31 March 2019. This is a 53-week accounting period, as last year’s accounts were made up to the 25 March 2018.
Hillside (Technology) Limited donated £55m, Hillside (Media Services) Limited donated £30m.
Last year the charity recieved £75m from three large donations.
The Bet365 Group's revenue for the period was £2.98bn while its operating profit was £767m. Coates was paid a record £323m last year, which makes her the UK's highest paid company chief executive.
Grant giving
During the year, the foundation allocated grants worth £9.1m across a wide range of areas including medical research, health, education and arts.
The Douglas Macmillan Hospice received two donations towards the refurbishment of the in-patient ward and funding to support staff, totalling £1.2m. The Chronic Disease Research Foundation also received £1.2m spread over three donations.
Other recipients included the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity (£1m), the Zoological Society of London (£595,000), Stonyhurst College (£500,000) and CAFOD (£248,000).
The foundation has six trustees, including Denise Coates, her father Peter and her brother John. The foundation has no members of staff and is based at Bet365’s head office. It was set up 2012 as the Bet365 Foundation and changed its name in 2016. It does not have a website or email address.
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