About Us

Background

It is a frightening reality that some of the wealthiest nations on earth are still turning out young people who do not have the skills to join the workforce. In the UK, 1.2 million young people are not in education, employment or training. For them, life holds little more promise than a dole queue, depression and debt.

In 2006, a number of individuals and firms from the private equity industry came together to explore how we could change society for the better. This effort led to the creation of the Private Equity Foundation, an organisation that has been backed by over 70 firms from the private equity community and their advisors.

The Foundation aims to broker strong relationships between the business and charity worlds. Our hope is that charities will benefit as much from our skills as they do from our donations. Engaging with charities to build truly great organisations has the additional benefit of protecting and enhancing our donors' investments. Each charity we back is rigorously assessed before it is chosen to appear in our portfolio. Once a charity is selected, the Foundation provides a package of support to ensure that the chosen charity’s work is scaled up and made available to more young people.

Investment Approach

PEF is founded on the belief that there are very strong parallels between the private equity disciplines that help build capable and results-focused companies, and those that help build successful and effective charities. PEF takes the best of private equity expertise and resources, and applies it to build stronger and more effective organisations in the charity sector.

Each investment candidate comes before the PEF Board for approval. Once approved, its performance will be monitored on a quarterly basis by the Board. Charities would typically remain in the portfolio for three years. PEF has a primary investment focus on the UK and a secondary focus on other parts of Europe.