Sunday Times Rich List 2008
Times Newspapers says this is the
“Definitive guide to the richest 1,000 in Britain and Ireland”
Except that it isn’t!! It ought to be called “The definitive guide to the richest 1,000 people in Britain and Ireland which Philip Beresford and his colleagues can find and prove that they are that rich without getting sued”
That’s no criticism of Philip Beresford since much of the information one would need to prove people are wealthy is not in the public domain. The head of one of the world’s leading private banks told me three years ago that he thought the STRL underestimated the amount of wealth in London by a factor of about 7. He reckoned there were 5,000 people in London worth £50m or more. At that time you had to have £30m to get into the STRL.
The serious point here for fundraisers is we risk becoming too reliant on STRL rather than private prospect research with volunteers leading us to other wealthy people. So what would you do instead to find wealthy people?
- See who’s giving you big gifts already
- Ask your most generous donors to introduce you to others they know
- Look for wealth in your database: people who do the kinds of job likely to result in significant wealth creation
- Read the newspapers, especially the FT and similar - look who is selling companies, who leads those companies making significant wealth - yes these have been hedge funds and private equity. Don’t be depressed by the current market turmoil - remember hedge funds started as a way of making money when times were bad.
- Don’t be blinded by people earning £250,000 a year - very exciting but big big gifts need significant genuinely disposable income, or better, disposable capital.
More ideas welcome - do post them in the comments….