The value of Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) grantmaking dropped by £10m during the last financial year, but the charity says it has had a consistent approach to funding projects.

CIFF, which was set up by multimillionaire City highflyer Chris Hohn (pictured), made around £23m worth of investment in charitable activity in the financial year ending 31 August 2009, compared with £33.5m in the previous year.

Gerry Elias, a trustee of CIFF, said that this drop reflected the nature of the projects the charity invests in, with the 2007/2008 financial year seeing CIFF fund some higher-value projects in contrast to the more recent financial year.

Elias told Civil Society that the charity funded around the same number of projects – 13 in 2007/2008 and 12 in the more recent year – and said there could be no linear measure of grantmaking. The fall in grantmaking value, he said, was reflective of the variation in the kinds and number of grant applications the board had been asked to consider.

Following reports in The Observer on the weekend that the Charity Commission had been reassured that CIFF’s grantmaking would increase again this current financial year, Elias reaffirmed that there is no Commission investigation and that CIFF regularly meets with the regulator as a matter of course.

“The impact on children will drive grants,” he said. “We will not be drawn on spending down the endowment.”

CIFF’s endowment has taken something of a battering as a result of the financial downturn, with assets falling in value by 7 per cent on the previous year, to reach £1.45bn. It remains one of the richest charities in the UK.

Elias added that CIFF will be expanding its funding programmes in the coming year and expects the charity will be more vocal about funding opportunities in the future.

Jamie Cooper-Hohn, the chief executive of CIFF, said: "Our aim is to make long-term, well-researched investments, bringing business rigour and a private-sector approach into development."