How to Raise Capital from UK Charities: 2026 Guide

Data sourced from Dakota Marketplace, the global LP and GP intelligence platform trusted by thousands of investment professionals. Learn More | Book a Demo

Raising capital from UK charities in 2026 means working a market of 1,750+ foundation and endowment investors in Dakota Marketplace, most of them intermediated by four specialist managers, a handful of OCIOs and the wealth managers' fund selection desks. The 1,620 UK charities with more than $13 million invested hold $250 billion+ between them. This guide covers who buys, what they buy, who holds the mandates, when they open, who decides, and how to approach each segment.

Key Takeaways

• Dakota Marketplace holds 1,750+ UK foundation and endowment accounts with 10,700+ contacts, read from audited accounts filed with the Charity Commission and enriched by Dakota's research team (Dakota Marketplace, October 2026).
• UK charity capital is intermediated: CCLA, Cazenove Capital, Sarasin & Partners and Rathbones appear in just over half of mapped manager relationships, so a buy-list win at one of them reaches dozens of charities at once.
• Timing is knowable. Every charity files audited accounts within 10 months of its year end, so manager changes surface in two filing waves a year, and the charity that has just changed manager is the highest-intent prospect in the channel.
• Trustees decide. 8,315 of the 10,758 charity contacts in Marketplace are trustees, investment committee members are the working group to find, and only 27 contacts carry a CIO contact type.
• A named investment consultant sits on 160 charity accounts, led by Cambridge Associates (17) and Stanhope Capital (16), and consultant use rises with size.

Who are the UK charity investors and how big is the market?

UK charities are one of the largest under-worked institutional channels in Europe: the 1,620 charities with more than $13 million invested hold $250 billion+, and Dakota Marketplace now carries 1,750+ of them as accounts, with 10,700+ named contacts. The Charity Commission for England and Wales had 171,539 charities on its register at the end of June 2026, but investable capital sits in a thin top layer of grant-making foundations, endowed charities, Oxford and Cambridge colleges, faith-based bodies and large operating charities with reserves.

Geography is concentrated but not London-only. 755 of the 1,752 charity accounts give London as their city, followed by Oxford (65), Cambridge (50), Birmingham (29) and Bristol (27). The Oxford and Cambridge figures are almost entirely college endowments, which share a governance model and a short list of managers.

Sources: Dakota Marketplace, October 2026; Charity Commission casework and registrations data, April to June 2026.

The top of the market is large by any standard. The Wellcome Trust runs around $57 billion with 33.8% in private equity at September 2025, which makes it one of Europe's largest alternatives allocators. Below it the market drops quickly into the $100 million to $1 billion band where most of the 1,750+ accounts sit, and where the buying decision is shared with an outside firm.

What do UK charities buy?

UK charities buy long-horizon, income-aware portfolios with a screen on top, and the screen is the first filter a fund manager has to pass. Roughly half of large UK investing charities disclose ESG, ethical or mission-related investment policies, and the proportion rises among church-linked, medical and environmental charities. The Charity Commission's CC14 guidance, "Charities and investment matters", was reissued in August 2023 and confirms that trustees may take a charity's purposes into account when investing, which has pushed more boards towards explicit exclusions and climate policies.

Three structural features shape demand. First, permanent endowment rules mean many charities must preserve capital and spend income, so income-producing strategies and total-return orders matter more than they do for a pension fund. Second, most charities below $250 million buy through pooled vehicles rather than segregated mandates, because minimums and governance capacity rule out direct fund commitments. Third, private markets exposure is real but concentrated: the in-house giants and OCIO-run endowments commit to private equity, private credit and real assets directly, while the intermediated market reaches alternatives through the specialists' multi-asset funds.

For a fund manager this splits the product question in two. A screened pooled fund with a sensible minimum and charity-literate reporting is the way into the intermediated and direct mid-sized segments. A conventional institutional private markets fund is the way into the top 30 or so charities that run their own manager selection, and into the OCIOs that select on their behalf.

Who manages charity money today?

Four charity specialists hold just over half of the manager relationships Dakota has mapped from filed accounts, and the rest of the market splits between wealth managers, OCIOs and institutional passive providers. The 2026 manager league table, built from the same audited accounts that feed Marketplace, reads as follows.

Sources: Dakota Marketplace manager relationship mapping, 2026; the full table is in the manager league table linked below.

In Marketplace today those managers are named in the account description on 1,347 of the 1,752 charity accounts, which is where a reader checks an incumbent before a call. A searchable manager field is coming soon, so the same relationships become a filter rather than a read.

The gatekeeper list matters because each of those firms runs its own research process for third-party funds. CCLA, Cazenove, Sarasin and Rathbones all hold external funds inside their charity portfolios, and a single buy-list decision at one of them distributes a fund across dozens of charity clients. Partners Capital and the other OCIOs are allocator accounts in their own right. Treating the top of this table as nine institutional prospects, rather than as competitors, is the single most useful reframing in the channel.

Want the full UK charity list behind this table? Dakota Marketplace shows every UK foundation and endowment account, the managers and consultants named on each, and the trustees and finance directors who decide. Book a Demo to build your UK charity target list.

When do charity mandates open up?

Charity mandates open on a published schedule, because every registered charity must file audited accounts with the Charity Commission within 10 months of its financial year end. Most charities close their year on 31 March or 31 December, so new accounts arrive in two waves: a January wave for March year ends and an October wave for December year ends. Each set of accounts names the investment managers, custodians and advisers in place at the year end, so a manager change becomes visible on a knowable date, with a lag of up to 10 months.

That lag is the honest caveat of this channel. A termination disclosed in accounts filed in January may have been decided the previous spring. The practical response is to work the filing calendar rather than wait for an RFP: read the new accounts as they land, compare the manager list with the prior year, and call the charities whose adviser or manager has changed. Dakota's research team refreshes the charity accounts monthly as new filings arrive, and the account description records the managers named in the latest accounts.

Three other signals mark an open window. Formal manager reviews run every three to five years at most charities with a consultant, and the consultant's appointment often precedes a review by a year. A new finance director or investment committee chair tends to trigger a review within 18 months. And a large legacy or asset sale, visible in the accounts as a jump in investment assets, usually means a new allocation decision in the following year.

Who decides at a UK charity?

Trustees decide, and in most charities the decision runs through an investment committee and the finance director rather than a dedicated investment professional. Of the 10,758 contacts on UK charity accounts in Marketplace, 8,315 carry the Trustee contact type. Only 27 carry a CIO contact type, and most of those sit at the largest endowments.

Sources: Dakota Marketplace, UK foundation and endowment accounts, 22 October 2026.

The finance director is the most reachable executive and the person who runs the review process day to day. The investment committee chair is the vote that matters. The chief executive rarely drives manager selection but can block it. Where a consultant is named, which is the case on 160 accounts, the consultant runs the search and the committee chooses from a shortlist of three or four.

Consultant coverage follows size. Cambridge Associates advises 17 charity accounts and Stanhope Capital 16, with Marsh (formerly Mercer) and Asset Risk Consultants on 10 each, Lane Clark & Peacock on 9, Barnett Waddingham and Redington on 8 each and Portfolio Review Services on 7. Below about $25 million almost no charity names a consultant; above $1 billion roughly one in four does.

One feature of this channel compounds every relationship. Charity trustees are frequently professionals at other allocators, and the same person often sits on two or three boards. A trustee who knows a fund from one charity will raise it at the next, which is why the contact record, with its board memberships, is worth as much as the account record.

How should a fund manager approach UK charities?

Pick the door before knocking. The channel rewards managers who choose a segment, build the product and reporting that segment expects, and work the filing calendar, rather than those who send the same institutional deck to every charity in a list.

The gatekeeper route is the fastest to scale. The four specialists, the wealth managers' fund selection desks and the OCIOs each run a research process, and each is an account in Marketplace with named research contacts. A fund that passes their screens reaches charity portfolios without a single trustee meeting.

The direct route suits two groups. The in-house giants select private markets managers like any large endowment and expect institutional terms. The direct mid-sized charities, often with a consultant, buy funds through their committee and respond to managers who speak the charity language: income, permanent endowment, CC14, SORP accounting for investments, and a screening policy that can be mapped to the charity's own.

Minimums and format decide the rest. Pooled funds with charity share classes or a Common Investment Fund structure open the middle of the market; a $10 million minimum closes it. Reporting that shows income and total return separately, with a clear ethical screen statement, answers the questions trustees ask. Charity investment conferences and the sector's investor groups put a manager in front of 50 trustees at once, which no cold outreach matches.

Sources: Dakota Marketplace; Charity Commission filing rules.

Two cautions keep the plan honest. Accounts are annual, so the picture in Marketplace is the position at the last year end, and a call should open with a question rather than an assumption. And the managers are text in the account description today; the structured field arrives with the next data release, so a filter by incumbent is coming rather than live.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many UK charities invest, and how much do they hold?

The 1,620 UK charities with more than $13 million invested hold $250 billion+ between them. Dakota Marketplace carries 1,750+ UK foundation and endowment accounts with 10,700+ contacts, read from audited accounts filed with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, which had 171,539 charities on its register at the end of June 2026.

Who manages the money for UK charities?

Four charity specialists dominate by client count: CCLA Investment Management (264 disclosed charity relationships), Cazenove Capital (194), Sarasin & Partners (184) and Rathbones (166). Wealth managers such as Evelyn Partners and Quilter Cheviot, the OCIO Partners Capital and passive providers led by BlackRock make up most of the rest.

How do fund managers get onto UK charity buy lists?

Treat the specialists, wealth managers and OCIOs as institutional allocators and go through their research processes. Each runs third-party fund selection, and a single approval distributes a fund across dozens of charity portfolios, which is faster than direct outreach to smaller charities.

When do UK charities change investment managers?

Changes show in the audited accounts, which must be filed within 10 months of the year end. With most year ends on 31 March or 31 December, new accounts land in January and October waves. Formal reviews run every three to five years, often following a consultant appointment or a change of finance director.

Who decides on investments at a UK charity?

The trustees, usually through an investment committee, with the finance director running the process. Of the 10,758 charity contacts in Dakota Marketplace, 8,315 are trustees and only 27 carry a CIO contact type. Where a consultant is named, the consultant runs the search and the committee picks from a shortlist.

Do UK charities require ESG or ethical screening?

Around half of large UK investing charities disclose ESG, ethical or mission-related policies, and the Charity Commission's CC14 guidance, reissued in August 2023, confirms that trustees may take the charity's purposes into account when investing. A manager who cannot run a screened portfolio is invisible to most of the intermediated market.

Which consultants advise UK charities?

A named investment consultant appears on 160 UK charity accounts in Dakota Marketplace. Cambridge Associates (17) and Stanhope Capital (16) lead, followed by Marsh (formerly Mercer) and Asset Risk Consultants (10 each), Lane Clark & Peacock (9), Barnett Waddingham and Redington (8 each) and Portfolio Review Services (7).

Where does Dakota's UK charity data come from?

Every registered charity files audited accounts with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, and larger charities name their investment managers, custodians and advisers in those accounts. Dakota's research team reads those filings, builds the account and contact records, and refreshes them monthly as new accounts are filed.

Ready to work the UK charity market?

Dakota Marketplace holds 1,750+ UK foundation and endowment accounts and 10,700+ contacts on them, with a named consultant on 160 accounts and the investment managers named in the description on 1,347. Filter by account type (Foundation or Endowment), country (United Kingdom), AUM band, city and consultant to build a target list in minutes, then read each account to see the incumbents and the people who decide. A trial shows what this guide cannot: the full account list, every trustee and committee member, the filing dates, and the same view for LGPS funds, wealth managers and the rest of the UK allocator map.

Book a Demo to see the UK charity dataset account by account.

Related reading: Top 10 UK Charities by Investment Assets · Who Manages UK Charity Money? The 2026 Manager League Table · Top 10 Most Active Institutional Investors in the UK · The UK & Europe Allocator Map Just Got a Lot More Complete