The good foundation guide

Mike Dickson

Do you have a bit of money spare? Would you like to give strategically and in a tax-efficient way? Start your own charitable trust and make a difference to causes close to your heart

‘You start off full of enthusiasm – after all, what could possibly be more fun than giving money away? But it can turn into a negative and depressing process as you begin to get inundated with perfectly worthy and reasonable requests for money. If you work on the assumption that all requests are deserving, you can then spend 80 per cent of each trustee meeting saying “no” to real need. Then you are tempted to narrow the funding policy so that fewer people get through, which defeats the purpose of your dream.’

David Gold is enthusiastic, energetic – in a Duracell sort of way – and very good company. His approach to philanthropy is based on ‘trust and risk’. Taking risks on people and trusting them to deliver – in sharp contrast to some of the recent noise about philanthropy in the City, which focuses on leverage and return on investment.

In 2001 David set up the UK office of A Glimmer of Hope, a private foundation that funds projects in rural Ethiopia, which was originally established in America by his sister and brother-in-law. The foundation is independent, so can take calculated risks, and it uses its own network to find innovative projects that might otherwise have trouble getting funding. Glimmer of Hope UK supports projects that build the self-esteem and skills of excluded youth. David describes this as ‘the operating software for getting on in life’. He loves the enthusiasm of young people and hates to see them written off simply because they lack opportunity.

I really admire David’s pragmatic and risky approach. A large part of his analysis is: ‘Would I trust this person over a period of time? Have they got passion and compassion?’

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