Impetus Trust, the venture philanthropy, has won the Charity Award 2008 for Grantmaking. 

The Charity Awards are run by Charity Finance. The other two short-listed nominations for Grantmaking were City Bridge Trust and Four Acre Trust.  All three funders are members of the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF). 

Founded in 2003, Impetus has raised a total of £10.1m in its first four years (to December 2007), including £3.2m in pro bono expertise for its charities and £1.6m in co-investment. As a result, the average social impact of the Impetus charity portfolio, as measured by the number of people helped, has grown by 66% annually, with more than 166,000 beneficiaries in 2006-07.

Impetus also has recorded an average increase in income of 22% across the seven charities that have been in its portfolio for at least 12 months, six times greater than the charity sector average.

The judges described Impetus’ analysis work as “exemplary” and said it would “push traditional grant-making into working in different ways, which is excellent.”