There is a vast legacy of philanthropic activity amongst the wealthy in the UK, with the last major episode occurring during the tremendous wealth creation of the Victorian era. As the number and assets of the wealthy in the UK today continues to break new records, this paper examines the current climate of giving amongst this group, what issues the individuals and the charities face, and how all of this is set to change in the next decade.

We are extremely grateful to all the participants in this study. These include the 504 High Net Worth individuals holding over £100,000 in investable assets who provided quantitative data, the 15 Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) individuals holding over £3million in investable assets who completed in-depth qualitative interviews and the Panel of five expert Thought Leaders:

• Peter Beckwith is a businessman and renowned philanthropist with a particular interest in education, sporting and arts causes. He is also a fellow of Emmanuel College Cambridge. He is involved in a wide number of charities spanning education, through elderly care, to the local community.
• Salvatore LaSpada joined the Institute for Philanthropy as Chief Executive in April 2006. Formerly, he was Director of The Philanthropy Workshop (TPW) at the Rockefeller Foundation, a strategic philanthropy training and networking programme for high net worth individuals and new foundation trustees which is now housed at the Institute for Philanthropy. From 1993-1999, he was a philanthropic advisor to the Rockefeller family at Rockefeller Financial Services.
• Susan Weingarten is fundraising consultant for Charities. She is also a benefactor and member of the development committee for the National Theatre. Susan has previously been a committee member for the British Museum and the American School in London.
• Brian Smouha is a trustee for the Institute of Philanthropy and formerly sat on the board of Barclays Private Bank. He retired as a senior partner at Deloitte & Touche specialising in financial institutions worldwide in 2001 and set-up a UK GuideStar database, a website that logs information on charities for donors.
• Guy Davies is Head of Charities at Barclays Wealth. The organisation looks after nearly 2,000 different charities and its association with the sector stretches back to Barclays’ beginnings - the bank was often referred to as the Quaker Bank after the tradition of its founding families.