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Children's Investment Fund Foundation
Sir Chris Hohn endowed CIFF in 2002 with TCI hedge fund capital, creating the world's largest independent foundation dedicated to children.
Children's Investment Fund Foundation
CIFF was founded in 2002 when Sir Chris Hohn and Jamie Cooper-Hohn seeded an endowment from The Children's Investment Fund Management, the activist hedge fund Hohn launched the same year. The foundation is now an independent organization, with its endowment managed separately by TCI, and focuses on transforming health, nutrition, climate resilience, and opportunity for children and adolescents in the Global South. Hohn chairs the board; CEO Kate Hampton leads a team operating from offices in London, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, New Delhi, and Beijing. CIFF deploys over $3.1 billion through direct programmatic grants, outcome-based financing, and ecosystem development work. Its three pillars are strengthening primary health and nutrition, supporting opportunity and choice for women and girls, and catalyzing climate action — always through partnerships with national governments, multilaterals, and local NGOs. The foundation's development finance practice designs blended-capital structures with multilateral development banks to crowd in co-funding. Its Tech4Impact team tests and scales digital tools that improve cost-effectiveness across its interventions in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Beyond its endowment, CIFF draws continued gifts from Hohn and TCI, helping sustain its position as one of Europe's largest independent foundations by deployable capital. The foundation publicly commits to safeguarding as a design principle and aligns its programming with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris climate agreement. Kate Hampton also chairs the European Climate Foundation, linking CIFF's climate work to broader European philanthropic networks. CIFF's structural distinction is its integration with an active hedge fund legacy: the endowment remains managed by TCI, and Hohn's ongoing gifts connect the foundation's fortune to the performance of an activist investment vehicle. This tie creates a capital pipeline that few development philanthropies can replicate, while CIFF's insistence on local ownership and rigorous evidence-based monitoring gives it a posture closer to that of a multilateral development agency than a traditional family foundation.
General information
Firm type
Endowment / Foundation
Year founded
2002
AUM
$6.65 billion (Altss estimate)
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
London
Corporate office
7 Clifford Street, London, W1S 2FT, United Kingdom
Additional offices
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia · Nairobi, Kenya · New Delhi, India · Beijing, China
Principals
Sir Chris Hohn
Founder and Chair of the Board of Trustees
Kate Hampton
CEO
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How is CIFF funded and what is its relationship to TCI?
CIFF was endowed by Sir Chris Hohn in 2002 from his hedge fund, The Children's Investment Fund Management (TCI). The endowment is held and managed separately by TCI but CIFF operates independently. Hohn and TCI continue to make gifts that support new programming, and approved programs are funded from the endowment and those restricted gifts.
Who runs investment and program decisions at CIFF?
CEO Kate Hampton leads CIFF's operational and programmatic strategy, reporting to the board chaired by founder Sir Chris Hohn. Hohn sets governance and philanthropic direction but investment management of the endowment is handled entirely by TCI, separating grant deployment from capital management.
Does CIFF make direct investments, grants, or both?
CIFF is exclusively a grantmaker and development finance facilitator — it does not take equity stakes or make venture investments directly. Its deployment tools include traditional grants, outcome-based financing, and blended-capital partnerships with multilateral development banks.
Which geographies does CIFF operate in?
CIFF runs regional offices in Addis Ababa, Nairobi, New Delhi, and Beijing, with programs active across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and East and Southeast Asia. All work is executed in partnership with local governments and NGOs to ensure locally owned, large-scale change.
What is CIFF's documented approach to safeguarding?
Safeguarding is embedded as a non-negotiable design principle across all CIFF programs. Its policy aligns with Charity Commission for England & Wales guidance and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The foundation requires partners to integrate safety into program design rather than treating it as a retrospective compliance layer.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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