St. James's Place Charitable Foundation reaches astonishing £130m landmark
The St. James’s Place (SJP) Charitable Foundation has now surpassed £130million for monies raised through fundraising and corporate matching, supporting charities to make transformational change to people’s lives in the UK and overseas.
Established in 1992, the Charitable Foundation, which was set up by SJP founders’ Mike Wilson and Sir Mark Weinberg, is one of the largest corporate Foundations in the UK. It has four core funding themes:
Supporting disadvantaged children and young people and children and young people with disabilities
Hospices
Cancer support charities
Mental Health
Today, the Foundation still lies at the heart of SJP and is an important part of the company’s culture.
Sir Mark Weinberg was one of the founding members of the per cent Club (an initiative which encourages businesses to give at least 1 % of their profits to charity) and Business in the Community, which is now an industry benchmark for all businesses.
During SJP’s Annual Company Meeting held on Friday 26 January, the St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Sir Mark in recognition of his unfaltering contribution to charity. Presenting the award, former SJP CEO, Andrew Croft and Chair of Trustees, acknowledged and thanked Sir Mark for the many charitable roles he has held, including, Honorary Treasurer of the NSPCC, Trustee of the Blenheim Palace Trust & The Clore Foundation and Founder of Ability Net – a charity designed to help with electronic communications for disabled people.
Upon receiving the award, Sir Mark commented: "I feel very honoured and humbled to receive this award and recognise that it is the collective efforts of many people that make a positive difference in our communities.”
Carrying on the founders’ work, over 90% of SJP Partners & employees are engaged in Foundation projects with 3.5million people having now been directly supported by funding from the Foundation (66% of beneficiaries reported substantive or transformative change as a result). SJP is also in the top ten of FTSE100 companies *(REF CAF source) for % of profits donated to charity, and whilst 1% was set as a minimum SJP are still one of the leaders in this area.
Commenting on this milestone, Head of the Charitable Foundation, Catherine Ind, said: “It is a remarkable milestone to have reached and is testament to the generosity and commitment of the SJP community and desire to have a positive impact in society. Supporting some incredible grassroots charities across our communities provides a daily inspiration to us all to give back and create positive and lasting change”.
