A tradition of giving

Building better futures 

The Golden Bottle Trust (GBT) traces its name to the earliest days of the bank, when our founder, Richard Hoare, traded at the Sign of the Golden Bottle on Cheapside. It is, however, a distinctly progressive vehicle, acting as a hub for the family’s, and the bank’s, philanthropic activities.

Since the launch of the trust in 1985, it has supported thousands of organisations with grants totalling more than £30m.  In the 2021/2022 period, it donated more than £2.8m through 384 grants.

At the end of 2019, we achieved ‘total portfolio impact’, with 100% of the trust’s reserves invested in social impact investments. This gives us the double satisfaction of seeing our investments, as well as our grants, doing good in the world.

We work in close partnership with the charities we support and do not accept unsolicited grant requests. Instead, we use our trusted network, and our own research, to select the recipients of GBT grants.

We are continually looking for new ways to refine the Golden Bottle Trust’s activities, most recently with the introduction of special grants made in honour of the bank’s 350th anniversary. These ‘350 grants’ are designed specifically to support innovation and catalytic change, reflecting the Hoare family’s centuries-long tradition of pioneering philanthropy.