Hedge funders top most generous philanthropists list

Hedge fund managers Suneil Setiya and Greg Skinner have jointly taken top spot on this year’s Sunday Times Giving List.

They are the founders of Quadrature Capital and are worth an estimated £980m each. Over the last 12 months they have donated £269.8m between them.

Another hedge fund manager, Chris Hohn, takes third spot when his donations are calculated as a percentage of his wealth.

In terms of overall amount given he donated the most, £983m over the last 12 months.

The list has been released online by the publication and will be published in the print edition this Sunday. It tracks the philanthropic activity of those who appeak on the Sunday Times rich list and list of richest people under the age of 40.

The 100 individuals that appear on its rich list collectively gave £3.7bn either personally or through their charitable foundations and businesses. This is up by £498m on the previous year.

Singer Harry Styles has debuted on the list this year. Other celebrities include Elton John and Lewis Hamilton.

The giving list is support by the Charities Aid Foundation. Its chief executive Neil Heslop said: “High-net-worth individuals are critical to enabling charities to do more of their life-changing work.

“For charitable organisations there has never been a more difficult combination of circumstances, demands are through the roof, costs are up dramatically higher, and income is under pressure.

According to the most recent accounts, 10 out of the top 100 gave more than £100 million in the past year but almost two thirds gave less than 1% of their wealth.

Heslop added: “If wealthy individuals were giving just 1% of their investible assets, as the people at the top of the Giving List are doing, that’s £19.9 billion going into the charity sector on an annual basis.”



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