Goodman’s charity is better at making money than giving it away

As part of our latest look at the inner workings of the Goodman empire, we came across the UK-registered charity, the Goodman Foundation.

The charity is funded almost exclusively by donations from Goodman group companies, and lists Larry Goodman, his wife Catherine, and Philip Morgan – also a trustee of the JRT II Trust described on the opposite page – as trustees.

The interesting thing about the charity is that it seems to do considerably well on the fundraising side, while it has been much slower when it comes to making donations.

Between 2018 and March 2023, assets of the charity rose by £38.6m (€45.8m) to £100.8m (€119.6m), while total charitable donations across those six years were £7.7m (€9.1m). The majority of that charitable spending occurred in 2022 and 2023, coinciding with an announced donation to help the people of Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion.

In 2018, the charity received a £15m donation from Olleco, a Goodman group company, followed by a further £4m (€4.75m) in 2019, £5m (€5.93m) in 2020 and £5m (€5.93m) in 2021. In both 2022 and 2023, the charity received an endowment payment of £9.5m (€11.25m) from ABP Food Group. Donations to charities in the UK are tax-free.

The charity earned £732,337 (€867,997) in investment income and had a net gain on investments of £6.8m (€8.06m) in the year to March 2023. During the year, it made charitable donations of £2.1m (€2.45m).

The charity says its objectives are “to help the poor, the elderly, the sick and those with a disability and to benefit such charitable causes the trustees determine are worthy”.