Founder’s donations send AKO Foundation soaring into the Charity Finance 100 Index

04 Apr 2022 News

The AKO Foundation is the highest new entrant in the Charity Finance 100 Index this year.

The AKO Foundation moves up 242 places from position 168 in the Charity Finance 250 Index to position 26 in the 100 Index, after it recorded three-year average income of £176.7m.

The Charity Finance 100 Index tracks the largest 100 charities, ranking entrants by their average annual income over the past three years. It is updated annually, and the newest version is published in this month's Charity Finance magazine.

The Foundation’s increase was largely due to an increase in donations from its founder Nicolai Tangen, who also founded the London-based hedge fund AKO Capital.

Some of this increase came after Tangen was appointed as chief executive officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, where he is responsible for managing the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, one of the world’s largest investment funds.

As a result, he had to give up his majority ownership interest in AKO Capital, and of a number of his other investment assets, so as to avoid a conflict of interests. These were gifted to the Foundation.

This was on top of an increase in other donations from Tangen, both directly and via investment subsidiaries of AKO Capital and DSHN Philanthropy.

Other new entrants

The second highest new entrant is Hospice UK which enters the 100 Index at position 76, based on three-year average income of £92.6m.

Its growth was aided by a £257.8m government grant to support its response to the Covid-19 emergency.

This year there are eight new entrants in the 100 Index and the remaining five also moved up from the 250 Index.

They are the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, UBS UK Donor Advised Foundation, Mines Advisory Group, HCT Group and the Institute of Physics.

Top ten

The top ten charities remain the same organisations, but the order has altered. The only two non-movers in the top ten are Nuffield Health and Motability, which remain in first and fifth place respectively.

CAF moves up from fourth place to second. Both Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the National Trust fall one place each, with CRUK dropping from second to third and the National Trust dropping from third to fourth.

Wellcome moves up one place to sixth with United Church Schools Foundation also moving up one place to seventh.

LifeArc sees the biggest fall in the top ten, dropping from sixth to eight.

The Salvation Army and Oxfam swap places, with the former now ninth and the latter tenth.

Income requirements

The minimum income requirements for entry into the 100 Index rose this year by 4% from £72.3m to £75.3m, resulting in the demotion of eight charities into the 250 Index.

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