TPW Alumni are honoured at the Spears Wealth Management Awards

The great and the good of the private wealth management world turned out last Tuesday for the Spears Wealth Management Awards, which this year took place at auction house Phillips de Pury in London. The awards, which are now in their sixth year, celebrate the UK’s top wealth managers, philanthropists, lawyers, and entrepreneurs for their successes, innovations and acumen in the year 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012. Whilst we could not attend the evening ourselves, we were so pleased to hear that this year the two awards for philanthropy (Philanthropist of the Year and Lifetime Achievement in Philanthropy award) were given to the Indigo Trust’s Fran Perrin, and The Funding Network’s Fred Mulder, both of whom are alumni of the Institute’s Philanthropy Workshop.

Fran Perrin, who is also a trustee of the Institute for Philanthropy, was awarded Philanthropist of the Year for her work with the Indigo Trust, a London-based grant-making foundation which supports technology driven projects to bring about social change, largely in African countries. The trust, which is still relatively young, has made great impact in affecting change in the areas in which it works, primarily in innovation, transparency and citizen-empowerment. Importantly, the Indigo Trust also represents a fantastic example of a truly strategic foundation: by investing in locally-driven initiatives, the trust is able to catalyse further social change in the communities in which its grantees work.

Fred Mulder, with three other donors, founded The Funding Network (TFN), “the friendly Dragons’ Den for charities”, in 2002. The premise of TFN is simple: that giving is more interesting, more satisfying, and probably more competent if it is done in the company of other people. One of the first open giving circles in the UK, TFN has quickly become a huge success, regularly attracting a diverse mixture of donors who are pitched to by local, national and international charitable projects. To date, TFN groups across the country have raised over £4 million for over 590 charities, an enormous achievement. Fred was also the winner of the Judges Special Beacon Fellowship Prize in March 2004, and was awarded a CBE for Services to Philanthropy in the 2012 New Year honours list.

In response to receiving the award, Fran Perrin said last week:

“I’m surprised and delighted to be awarded the Spears Wealth Management Awards Philanthropist of the Year. I hope this recognises both my passion for strategic philanthropy and also the importance of using modern technologies to improve lives across African countries. I’m very proud of the work of the Indigo Trust and the fantastic team who make it possible to support extraordinary individuals and projects.

I’m particularly pleased to see the Spears Lifetime Achievement in Philanthropy award go to Dr Frederick Mulder who, like me, has worked with the Institute for Philanthropy to help donors achieve impact.”

Both awards are extremely well-deserved, and we congratulate both Fran and Fred for their fantastic contribution to philanthropy.