Over four million children in the UK live in poverty. I want to help tackle this unacceptable inequality.
My background is in family business, and my late uncle Sandy, who was chairman of the business, instilled in our values the importance of the communities where we worked. Our communities were vital, not just in terms of business, but for society as whole. Our civil duty supporting community is where this all started.
Another key moment came when my father Charles passed away. In his will, written in his own hand, was a short note describing his wish to create an early year’s foundation to support children in their first thousand days. It was powerful. It made me stop and ask what had led him to this vision.
Why early years specifically? We know through the research of Professor James Heckman, and the Heckman Equation which found that the greatest social return on investment comes from early childhood. To help to understand more, we commissioned the New Philanthropy Capital Funding a Good Start report, which reinforced our understanding on the importance of early childhood, and potential approaches and strategies for funders.
What would success look like? Seeing more children having the best start to life and be ready for school. We believe that this is the surest way to break cycles of poverty and for all children to have the opportunity to thrive.
Why the UK? Working close to home it is about our communities and our nation’s children where the need, especially in our most disadvantaged communities, is especially high. It is encouraging to see other British philanthropies focused on addressing this deep-seated issue. We cannot afford to ignore the damage caused by child poverty to our shared prosperity and which has its roots in early childhood.
Why now? During Covid-19, my wife and I decided to endow the foundation and create the capacity to step up our work. This led to Ethos Foundation becoming a spend-down philanthropy, and the decision to exhaust the Foundation’s capital by 2035. We want to make an impact now, without burdening future generations by unnecessarily perpetuating this work. The decision to spend down has simplified things and given us a clear path to follow.
Grant, January 2026
