# Power To Change Trust

Power To Change Trust is an Endowment / Foundation based in London, United Kingdom.

## Overview

- **Organization type:** Endowment / Foundation
- **Headquarters:** London, United Kingdom
- **Region:** Europe
- **Address:** London, United Kingdom
- **Founded:** 1967
- **Assets under management:** Undisclosed
- **Website:** https://p2c.com
- **LinkedIn:** https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-power-to-change

## Regulatory record

- **Reports private funds:** No

## About

Power To Change Trust is a London-based non-profit that emerged as a dedicated funder of community business in the United Kingdom. Its origins tie to the Community Shares movement and Big Society capital allocations of the early 2010s. The Trust operates with an endowment that finances grants and social investments rather than delivering a family or individual's wealth mandate. Its governance reflects a charity structure where trustees steward assets exclusively for public-benefit purposes. The Trust's strategy funnels patient capital into community-owned enterprises — covering social real estate, local retail cooperatives, renewable energy schemes, and community hubs. Deployment channels include recoverable grants, blended finance, and social-investment tax relief structures. It rarely takes equity positions in for-profit ventures, instead prioritizing asset-locked vehicles. The geographic footprint concentrates on England, with particular density in the North and Midlands, supporting sites like the Old Print Works in Birmingham and Hastings' Electric Palace Cinema. Unlike venture funds, returns are measured in community wealth retention rather than financial IRR. Team scale remains undisclosed. The Trust does not maintain multiple offices beyond its London base. It periodically collocates with other UK social investors such as The National Lottery Community Fund and Access — The Foundation for Social Investment. In June 2023, the Trust celebrated ten years of grantmaking with a report documenting £120 million deployed into over 800 community businesses (per the Trust's 2023 impact report). Adjacent vehicles include the Community Business Renewal Fund, a rapid-response facility launched during the pandemic to stabilize local anchor institutions. The structural differentiator is the Trust's dogmatic adherence to the community-ownership model — it refuses grantee dependency by requiring investees to demonstrate democratic governance, typically through community shares or multi-stakeholder cooperatives. This creates a portfolio of durable local institutions that cannot be extracted for private gain. The Trust is among the few UK endowments that exclusively seeds and scales asset-locked enterprises, making it a policy-lab for community wealth building.

## Questions

### What is the origin of the Trust's endowment?

The Trust was established in 2015 with an endowment from the Big Lottery Fund (now The National Lottery Community Fund), created as part of a broader UK strategy to build a more resilient community-business sector. It received an initial £150 million commitment to operate over a multi-year period, functioning as a spend-down endowment rather than a perpetual foundation. The Trust's legal structure anchors it as a charitable trust overseen by independent trustees.

### Which UK regions receive the greatest concentration of the Trust's capital?

While the Trust deploys across England, its explicit geographic focus has tilted toward areas of high deprivation and weak community infrastructure. The North of England and the Midlands have received significant allocations, with notable clusters in Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and the West Midlands. The Trust's 2023 impact data highlighted urban and coastal communities as priority zones.

### Does Power To Change Trust co-invest with other foundations or government bodies?

Yes, collaborative deployment is central to its model. It has co-funded alongside Access — The Foundation for Social Investment, The National Lottery Community Fund, local authorities, and the Archipelago network of community-business consortia. However, its capital does not blend with commercially motivated investors seeking market-rate returns. All partnership capital aligns with the Trust's community-ownership and asset-lock principles.

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- [Porvenir Pensiones y Cesantías](https://altss.com/profile/porvenir-pensiones-y-cesant-as)
- [PR Wealth Management Group](https://altss.com/profile/pr-wealth-management-group)

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Last updated: 2026-06-03T20:00:00.000Z

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