15th January 2025
Back in 2005, most people, even those in the philanthropy and finance sectors, had little idea what a Donor Advised Fund (DAF) was. It was the year YouTube launched, Hurricane Katrina struck, the London transport system was bombed, and Tony Blair was re-elected for his third term. Amidst this backdrop, in the Baker Street area of London, we opened our doors with a very specific mission.
Twenty years later, we are celebrating our anniversary, having raised over $1 billion, distributed over $500 million, and holding more than $500 million in assets.
We have grown into one of the largest charities in the UK…despite being one that most people have never heard of.
In the last five years, our growth has accelerated significantly. Since our inception, we have made 9,321 grants through our Donor Advised Fund (DAF) service and have managed 239 Collective Funds.
The initial idea
Our co-founder Anna Josse came up with the concept after setting up the UK arm of a US/ Israeli charity. She observed how American philanthropists were using Donor Advised Funds effectively to navigate significant gifting.
Although one government backed DAF had been available in the UK since the early 1970s, DAFs were still extremely niche and not well understood. In contrast, they were highly popular in America. She recognised these models as a key way to channel more money into the UK charity sector.
Anna was well-positioned to lead this initiative, with a unique blend of charity sector experience, financial expertise, and work with tech start-ups.
To help us kick off our anniversary year, we asked Anna to share some of Prism’s key success factors.
What have been the defining stories and causes you have supported over the years?
That’s such a hard question, because we, and DAFs, are agnostic, and each of our donors has their own personal story – what has motivated them in the first place.
I think what’s extraordinary is the variation we have overseen, from a donor trying to eradicate the worm disease Schistosomiasis in Burundi, to supporting incredible educational lectures happening at lunch times at the National Gallery.
Our detailed oversight
Another success saw huge amounts of money coming through Prism to fund the incredible capital build of an art centre in France. We literally sent money stage by stage for invoices, for pipes, for windows. That’s the kind of detailed oversight that Prism gets involved with.
“We literally sent money stage by stage for invoices, for pipes, for windows. That’s the kind of detailed oversight that Prism gets involved with.”
Pushing boundaries
We do push boundaries where we can, obviously within the law. For instance, we had another donor that wanted to support a profit-making company that makes bionic arms. It can be very challenging for a charity to support a business; we engaged charity lawyers and created a grant agreement whereby the donor’s money was utilised with a clear public benefit for a number of children who needed a bionic arm.
The passion of some of the people is extraordinary. Just recently we had a donor pay for the development of a new hospital – the Pears Maudsley Centre for Children and Young People in South London.
Incubating cutting-edge causes
We had another client, a Collective Fund (CF) that was so cutting-edge – looking at addressing environmental issues by Solar radiation modification (SRM) which is a controversial proposal for reducing some of the impacts of climate change by reflecting a small fraction of sunlight away from the Earth.
They eventually created their own charity, but in their first attempt with the Charity Commission, they were told there’s no proof that what they’re doing will help the Advancement of the Environment, and that they needed to come back and apply for the Advancement of Science. Prism provided them with the structure to operate immediately, incubating them until they were ready to become an independent charity.
“Prism provided them with the structure to operate immediately, incubating them until they were ready to become an independent charity.”
Such extraordinary stories come with the breadth and depth of what Prism has done, with half a billion dollars going around the world to massively varied projects.
Prism operates with a relatively small team. How has it managed to hit the $1 billion milestone in its 20th year?
When I had this idea, I never imagined it would grow to this size. It was a little concept and I’m proud of maintaining the rigour of our original objective.
Our niche audience and clear objective
This objective was clear from the very beginning. It remains the same objective today and it works: I wanted to target only the mid-upper-end of the market. It’s not a mass market service. We administer the giving of individuals, groups and foundations making significant gifts, tax effectively, all over the world. We’re not strategists. We’re very good administrators with expertise in compliance, governance and due diligence.
“We’re not strategists. We’re very good administrators with expertise in compliance, governance and due diligence.”
Running through that objective is a service and ethos of a bespoke, professional, personal and entrepreneurial spirit. This remains exactly the same 20 years on and it’s this clarity of service that is one of Prism’s biggest achievements.
You started out with a focus on Donor-Advised Funds but later developed Prism’s Collective Funds, which are unique in the UK. Where did this idea come from?
In 2015, one of the banks approached us after a tragedy: one of their employees’ babies had been killed, and they wanted to raise money rapidly from friends and family, tax effectively. So they came to us and we provided help and support.
Our first Collective Funds
At almost the same time, the World Food Programme knocked on our door in June 2015 and said: we’re owned by the UN in Rome, we’re not a UK registered charity, but we need a regulatory roof to tax-effectively raise money from lots of donors in time for October’s Rugby World Cup. The government was matching pound for pound, and we created that facility.
Responding quickly in a crisis
This coincided with lots of refugee groups finding their way to Prism and needing a service that could respond very quickly to an emergency, and that quick response mechanism extended to other issues such as earthquakes, and further down the line, to COVID. We were able to respond quickly to people needing to raise money. This is how the Collective Fund (CF) was born.
The Collective Funds are very much enablers, dynamic enough to respond very quickly, rather than someone having to wait for the Charity Commission to grant charitable status, or a bank to grant them an account – which can take over a year.
Impact during COVID
Collective Funds also did incredible work for people who’d lost jobs or developed long COVID supporting people that had been on hourly contracts and needed help when they had no income and lived below a basic minimum level of income. I always talk about an incredible chef called Leon Arts who created Kitchens With Compassion. Wembley Stadium gave him their kitchens because they were closed.
Operating under Prism, he made 625,000 meals for the NHS and vulnerable people in that first year.“
The Collective Funds are very much enablers, dynamic enough to respond very quickly, rather than someone having to wait for the Charity Commission to grant charitable status, or a bank to grant them an account – which can take over a year.”
What have been some of the biggest lessons of the last 20 years?
It’s been a steep learning curve, but this has only made us stronger. Our processes become more robust as we adapt to each new challenge.
We learn each time there is a crisis in the world and the charitable sector has to respond, or the regulatory environment changes. Our confidence around processing, due diligence, compliance and governance, and our massively expanded finance team brings us a deep level of expertise and gives us the reassurance we need so we can learn positively from such challenges.
Why do you believe so deeply in Prism and its mission?
For two reasons: One, because it clearly works. And 20 years on, there is a real need.
With the cost of living crisis and government cuts, I believe the last people standing are major donors, and that is our target market – as it has been from the very beginning. We have to encourage new clients to give and existing clients to give more. It’s a huge motivation because I really believe we can help the charitable sector with the crisis they’re facing. I’m also personally built in a certain way; I will always do the best I can possibly do, and will carry on doing that. It’s what fuels me.
What do you think the future holds for Prism and philanthropy in general?
I can see, in the last 20 years, how knocking on the doors of banks and law firms and accountants and donors has worked. More and more people are aware of what a Donor-Advised Fund is, and of Prism the Gift Fund.
The billion dollars we’ve raised, and the half a billion dollars we’ve distributed, is testament to this. We just want to continue to grow and service more people. The awards we’ve won, the amount of money that has been gifted to Prism and distributed onto global charities, the fantastic staff that we hire… I think it’s all in recognition of a very good service.
We just want to maintain that. And continue to grow. And to get the private client world to embrace the real need for DAFs. Given the increasing complexities and regulatory stumbling blocks confronted by people who want to create their own entity, I believe DAFs are the way forward in our sector.
