Who is lobbying to raise taxes in the UK? (Part 2)

Who are its five biggest funders?

Tax Justice UK primarily receives its funding from a relatively small number of progressive trusts and foundations through project-specific or core grants, supplemented by smaller donations from individual members of the public. It does not rely on large corporate or government funding (beyond occasional small schemes like furlough support in the past). The organization publishes a funders page listing supporters and names any individual donors giving £5,000 or more in a financial year in its annual accounts.

Current Major Foundation Funders (as listed on their official funders page)

These are the active or recently active trusts and foundations providing grants:

• Thirty Percy: Provided the largest recent single grant mentioned — £400,000 in flexible core funding for campaigns (2024–2028), plus an additional £40,000 for strategy work. This stands out as one of the biggest individual commitments in recent years.
• The Joffe Trust: £105,000 over three years (2024–2027) for work on dirty money and tax avoidance.
• Friends Provident Foundation: £84,400 over two years (2024–2026) for core campaign support. (It has provided recurring support in prior years, e.g., around £84,000 in 2021/22.)
• Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust: £90,000 over three years (starting 2021) for corporate tax accountability, extended with £33,000 for 2024–2025.
• Gower Street: £60,000 over two years (2024–2026) for climate and tax work.
• Luminate: $110,000 (approx. £85,000–90,000 at historical rates) in 2022 for advocacy on tax justice, reform, and transparency. (Additional amounts appeared in earlier accounts, e.g., £46k–£67k in 2022/23 periods.)
• Funding for Social Change: Smaller grant of £18,173 (2024–2025) for wealth taxation work.

Previous or one-off supporters have included Trust for London (e.g., £40k–£64k in accounts), Lankelly Chase (£50k), Barrow Cadbury Trust, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Solberga Foundation, and others.

Individual Donors

Public donations form a meaningful but secondary part of income. In the extended year July 2022–December 2023, these totaled £193,390. Named high-value individuals in older accounts (e.g., year to June 2022) included:

• Doro Marden (£35,000)
• Smaller amounts from others like Kristina Johansson and Julia Davis (£6,000 each)

The group commits to publishing names of anyone donating £5,000+ in a given year.

Overall Funding Scale and Structure

• Total income has been modest: e.g., ~£439k in the year to June 2022 (with ~£329k from grants and £106k from donations).
• Grants from trusts/foundations typically make up the majority (often 70–80% in reported periods), focused on restricted (project-specific) or core/unrestricted support.
• No single "billionaire" or corporate backer dominates; funding is diversified across philanthropic foundations aligned with social justice, inequality reduction, and progressive causes. Exact "top five by total historical contribution" isn't ranked publicly, but based on disclosed grants, the largest recent or recurring ones are Thirty Percy, Joffe Trust, Friends Provident Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, and Luminate / Trust for London.

For the most precise and up-to-date figures, check their latest Companies House accounts (company number 10761736) or the funders page, as grant cycles vary and some details (e.g., exact multi-year totals) are spread across reports. The organization emphasizes transparency on its site while noting that much of its work is grant-dependent.