The Garfield Weston Foundation is a grant-giving charity based in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1958 by Canadian businessman W. Garfield Weston (1898–1978), who during his lifetime contributed to numerous humanitarian causes, both personally and through his companies. His philanthropic works continue through the Garfield Weston Foundation in London and the Weston Family Foundation in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Finance The Garfield Weston Foundation is one of the wealthiest charitable foundations in the world, with assets of £9.7billion at 5 April 2017, of which a majority was attributed to the foundation's majority holding in Wittington Investments.
Cumulative total grants reached £960million in 2017 and £1.5billion in 2026, increasing at around £100million per year.
Chairmen
W. Garfield Weston (1958–1975) Garry Weston (1975–2000) Sir Guy Weston (since 2000)
Projects The Garfield Weston Foundation gave Oxford University £25million for the refurbishment of the New Library (built originally in the 1930s as part of the Bodleian Library), which re-opened to the public in March 2015 as the Weston Library.
The foundation has given grants to a number of schools, including St Michael's Primary School and Brackenbury Primary School for new classrooms and outdoor play areas for sport, and has given grants to Baker Dearing Educational Trust which promotes university technical colleges.
In 2019 the foundation gave £5million towards the £31million restoration of the walled garden at RHS Bridgewater in Salford, Greater Manchester.
Controversies over political donations In 2010, the Charity Commission found that between 1993 and 2004 the charity had given donations to the UK Conservative Party that totalled £900,000, which were in breach of UK charity law; as were similar donations to the economically liberal think tank the Centre for Policy Studies, and to Eurosceptic European political lobby groups such as the European Foundation and the Labour Euro-Safeguards Campaign.The Times, 12 April 2010, Westons breached charity law over Tory donations
See also Garfield Weston Merit Scholarships for Colleges Weston family
References
External links