# Clergy Support Trust Clergy Support Trust is an Endowment / Foundation based in London, United Kingdom. ## Overview - **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation - **Headquarters:** London, United Kingdom - **Region:** Europe - **Address:** 1 Dean Trench Street, Westminster, London, SW1P 3HB, United Kingdom - **Founded:** 1655 - **Assets under management:** Undisclosed - **Website:** clergysupport.org.uk - **LinkedIn:** https://linkedin.com/company/clergysupporttrust ## Regulatory record - **Reports private funds:** No ## About Clergy Support Trust was established in 1655 through charitable donations and bequests, making it the longest-running charity supporting Anglican clergy, ordinands, curates and their families. King Charles III continues the unbroken tradition of Sovereign patronage that began with Charles II in 1678. The Most Revd Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, serves as Honorary President, while Revd Ben Cahill-Nicholls leads day-to-day operations as Chief Executive alongside Senior Treasurer Richard Farmbrough. The Trust's investment strategy is endowment-driven, with a portfolio designed to fund annual grant-making rather than maximize capital growth. Asset allocation spans direct commercial property — including its headquarters at 1 Dean Trench Street in Westminster — alongside pooled real estate exposure through the Charities Property Fund and cash-equivalent short-term deposits. The portfolio generates income used to provide financial grants for health, housing, and hardship, plus non-financial support including confidential counselling, coaching services, and a debt-advice partnership with Step Change. The Trust covers clergy across the United Kingdom, Ireland, and continental Europe. The investment function operates through the Trust's Court of Assistants, chaired by Richard Farmbrough. As a member of the Church Investors Group, the Trust coordinates with other institutional church investors on responsible investment principles and ethical exclusions typical of faith-consistent portfolios. The Trust also partners with SPCK Publishing to provide the Ordinand Library digital resource for clergy in training. No AUM figure is publicly disclosed, and the Trust does not publish detailed deployment metrics. Structurally, the Trust differs from both family offices and modern institutional allocators: it is a Royal Charter corporation with a 370-year unbroken governance lineage, making its investment committee functionally a standing court rather than a hired CIO model. This architecture places the charitable mission as the sole fiduciary lens — every portfolio decision is tested against its capacity to sustain clergy wellbeing grants, which distinguishes it from endowments that balance multiple programmatic commitments. ## Sectors - Real Estate - Private Credit - Hedge Funds ## People - Revd Ben Cahill-Nicholls — Chief Executive Officer - Richard Farmbrough — Senior Treasurer and Chair of the Court of Assistants - King Charles III — Patron - The Most Revd Justin Welby — Honorary President ## Questions ### Who makes investment decisions at Clergy Support Trust? Investment oversight sits with the Court of Assistants, the Trust's governing body chaired by Senior Treasurer Richard Farmbrough. The Court functions as both charity trustee board and investment committee, a governance model rooted in the Trust's Royal Charter structure. Day-to-day financial management and grant administration is led by Chief Executive Revd Ben Cahill-Nicholls. ### Is Clergy Support Trust's portfolio publicly disclosed in detail? No. The Trust does not publish a full asset breakdown, AUM figure, or individual holdings beyond the named real estate assets. As a registered charity operating in England and Wales, it files annual accounts with the Charity Commission, but these do not constitute the granular portfolio-level disclosure typical of US foundations or pension funds. ### What is the relationship between the Sovereign and the Trust's governance? The Sovereign — currently King Charles III — serves as Patron, a role held by every British monarch since Charles II granted the Trust Royal Charter patronage in 1678. The patronage is ceremonial and does not confer investment authority, but it embeds the Trust within the institutional fabric of the Church of England and the Crown. The Archbishop of Canterbury serves as Honorary President in a similarly non-executive capacity. ### How does the Trust separate its grant-making operations from its investment function? Both functions operate under the unified governance of the Court of Assistants, with no separate professional investment team disclosed. Grant-making is administered by the Trust's staff, who process applications from clergy, ordinands, curates, and their families for financial support covering health costs, housing needs, and general hardship. The investment portfolio's income flows directly into the charitable spending pool without a formal spending-rule formula publicly documented. ## Related profiles - [Clelland & Company](https://altss.com/profile/clelland-company) - [CM Capital Asset Management](https://altss.com/profile/cm-capital-asset-management) --- Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z Canonical page: https://altss.com/profile/clergy-support-trust Maintained by Altss — https://altss.com — methodology: https://altss.com/methodology