Chris Hohn’s foundation pledges $549m to good causes

The charity set up by Sir Chris Hohn, the billionaire hedge fund manager, lifted the amount it gave to good causes last year after enjoying its biggest ever investment gain of more than $1 billion.
It marked a reversal from the $487 million net loss suffered by the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) in 2022 and helped the organisation pledge $549 million to charitable activities in 2023, up from $491 million a year earlier, accounts for the foundation show.
The charity was founded by Hohn, 57, and his now former wife Jamie Cooper 22 years ago and has become a powerful force in philanthropy, with its activities backed by a $5.9 billion investment portfolio. It supports everything from initiatives aimed at tackling climate change to measures to slow the transmission of HIV and to combat malnutrition in children.
Hohn, who chairs the foundation, was knighted for services to philanthropy and international development in 2014. The foundation’s investment portfolio is managed by TCI Fund Management, which is Hohn’s London-based hedge fund that oversaw assets of about $57 billion at the beginning of this year.
Through TCI, Hohn has built a reputation as one of the world’s most fearsome activist investors, with his firm building stakes in companies ranging from the Google owner Alphabet to Airbus, the European aerospace group, and pushing for change to boost their valuations.
His fund significantly outperformed last year to post a gain of almost 33 per cent. While it lost 18 per cent in 2022 amid volatile markets, before that the fund enjoyed a 13-year winning streak of profits.
This investing success has made a fortune for Hohn, who is the son of a Jamaican-born car mechanic and was ranked 32nd on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List with a net worth of £6.1 billion. Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister, worked at TCI before he entered politics.
A spokeswoman for the foundation said: “Thanks to our asset manager’s responsible, long-term investment strategy, this is the most significant year-on-year increase in CIFF’s endowment value.
“The excellent investment returns achieved give CIFF the financial strength and stability to make substantial long-term commitments to the work of our grantees, accelerating progress towards our charitable objective: improving the lives of children.”