The Sobell Foundation

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Large family grant-maker supporting UK charities and Jewish causes in Israel, including coexistence and immigrant-absorption projects

The Sobell Foundation

Type Trust
Founded 1977-10-03 (registered)
Registration ID Registered charity 274369
Headquarters Sobell Foundation, PO Box 80420, London, N3 9HX
Area served Throughout England And Wales, Israel
Website www.sobellfoundation.org.uk

The Sobell Foundation was established by Sir Michael Sobell on 5 September 1977 for general charitable purposes and registered on 3 October 1977; register areas are England and Wales and Israel.[1][2] Its policy is to support charities in England, Wales and Israel, and "in Israel only, the Trustees support coexistence projects and projects relating to immigrant absorption"; grants "are only made to, or through, UK registered charities". In the year ended 5 April 2025 it made 219 grants totalling just over £2.76m, investment income was £998,244 and total funds were £59,206,069.[2]

Objects and activities

The charity's registered objects read: "FOR SUCH CHARITABLE PURPOSES OR OBJECTS IN SUCH PROPORTIONS AND MANNER AS THE TRUSTEES SHALL FROM TIME TO TIME THINK FIT."[1]

The register describes its activities as: "The Sobell Foundation is a grant-making trust. Funding is generally restricted to charities working in the following fields: medical care and treatment; care and education for physically and mentally disabled people; homelessness; and care and support for the elderly and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In Israel only the Trustees support coexistence and immigrant absorption projects."[1]

Register classifications: The Advancement Of Health Or Saving Of Lives, Disability, The Prevention Or Relief Of Poverty.[1]

Areas of operation recorded on the register: Throughout England And Wales, Israel.[1]

Accounts for 2010–11 (Wayback Machine copy)

The accounts for the year ended 2011-04-05 were read from copies of the Charity Commission files held by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.[3] The trustees named are Roger Kingston Lewis, the Hon. Susan Gina Lacroix and Andrea Gaie Scouller. Total incoming resources were £1,678,914 (2009–10: £5,540,631).[3]

The foundation paid 437 grants "totalling just under £3.7 million"; about 31% of the total went "to Israeli charities and charities in the CIS". The analysis of grants paid shows 107 grants in Israel totalling £1,172,635 (community £191,000; education £447,500; hardship £153,000; medical care £381,135). The only Israel-related recipient named is British Friends of Haifa University, which received £125,000 as "the first instalment of a five year grant towards the development of their Learning Disabilities Mobile Resource Unit".[3] The accounts do not list other recipients, so no finding of activity beyond the Green Line can be made from them.

See also

People

Current trustees (Charity Commission register, October 2026)

Current trustees, with other charities on which the same register trustee ID appears:[1]

Trustees of The Sobell Foundation (register, October 2026)
Trustee Appointed Chair Other trusteeships
Susan Gina Lacroix not recorded The Weinstock Fund (1150031)
Andrea Gaie Scouller not recorded —
Karis Ann Lacroix 2017-09-25 —
Jerome Humphrey Andre Lacroix 2017-09-25 —
Julian Michael Edward Lee 2017-09-25 —
Sebastian Gaskell Lee 2017-09-25 —
Chloe Fletcher 2025-01-13 —

Historical trustees (UK Government Web Archive)

Trustees shown in archived register pages
Capture date Trustees listed Source
2021-01-08 Susan Gina Lacroix – also trustee of The Weinstock Fund; Julian Michael Edward Lee (from 25 September 2017) – also trustee of Mrs a G Scouller's Charitable Settlement; Sebastian Gaskell Lee (from 25 September 2017); Andrea Gaie Scouller; Karis Ann Lacroix (from 25 September 2017); Jerome Humphrey Andre Lacroix (from 25 September 2017); Deborah Henny Ann Sobel (from 25 September 2017) – also trustee of The Lewis Family Charitable Trust [4]

Finances

Income and expenditure, five most recent reported years
Financial year end Income Expenditure
2021-04-05 £1,888,872 £1,938,549
2022-04-05 £698,792 £4,026,645
2023-04-05 £941,203 £3,890,139
2024-04-05 £1,214,034 £2,342,207
2025-04-05 £1,184,037 £2,286,011

Source: register annual-return history.[1]

Archived accounts

Accounts no longer on the live register were found in the UK Government Web Archive:

  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2014[5]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2015[6]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2016[7]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2017[8]
  • Accounts for the year ended 05/04/2018[9]

Funding in Israel

  • Grants awarded in FY2025 for Israel totalled £688,000 (community £164,000; education £185,000; hardship £72,000; medical £267,000), against £984,000 in 2024; UK grants were £2,075,500.[2]
  • The trustees aim to visit Israel each year and use "a consultant based in Israel"; trustees' travel to Israel cost £262 (2024: £1,118).[2]

Israeli partners

Israeli beneficiaries are not named in the accounts; grants go to, or through, UK-registered charities.[2]

Activity beyond the Green Line and support for the IDF

Findings are graded by confidence. "Partner" findings concern the Israeli recipient organisation, not proven use of UK funds.

Evidence of activity beyond the 1949 armistice line
Finding Confidence
Not established – no Israeli recipient or place is named.[2] Low

Support for the IDF: No IDF or military funding is stated. Israel grants are classified as community, education, hardship and medical.[2]

Controversies and regulatory action

  • No Charity Commission inquiry, Official Warning or Gazette insolvency notice naming this charity was found, and its register entry shows no regulatory alert;[10] it is not among the charities named in the Commission's cheque-cashing class-inquiry announcements (May, September and December 2025) or in the September 2026 statement of results.[11][12][13][14] The charities in the Commission's settlements class inquiry (opened August 2026) have not been named, so it is not known whether this charity is among them.[15]

Other registers and records

Scotland and Northern Ireland

No entry was found on the Scottish Charity Register for this charity (full register download of 14 October 2026 searched by name).[16] No entry was found on the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland register (API name searches returned zero results).[17]

The Gazette

Searches of The Gazette notice feeds (all notices, insolvency and company) for the charity's name found no insolvency, winding-up or strike-off notice; results were limited to Companies House filing lists.[18]

Grants recorded by 360Giving

No grants received or made by this charity are recorded in 360Giving data.[19]

Sanctions screening

The charity's name, its current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages and (for charitable companies) its Companies House officers were screened against the UK Sanctions List and the OFSI Consolidated List. No match was found.[20]

Land and property

The register records that the charity does not own or lease land or property.[1] No title registers were purchased.[21]

Parliament

Hansard searches for 'Sobell Foundation' returned 0 contributions in total.[22]

Web archive

  • sobellfoundation.org.uk: 24 yearly captures, first 2003-12-16, last 2026-01-19.[23]

The UK Government Web Archive holds 2 archived Charity Commission register pages used in this profile (cited in the sections above). The 2021 archived full print showed the status "Charity reporting is up to date" and "Other regulators: No information available".[4]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Charity Commission for England and Wales, Register of Charities public extract (tables charity, charity_trustee, charity_annual_return_history, charity_area_of_operation, charity_classification), extract dated 14 October 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Charity Commission, The Sobell Foundation (274369): accounts and annual returns Register of Charities; latest accounts downloaded 14 October 2026 (the PDF is a scan and was read by OCR; "PDF p." = page of the PDF file).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Sobell Foundation accounts, year ended 2011-04-05 Internet Archive Wayback Machine (capture of 20130612; archived copy of the Charity Commission file).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Register entry 274369, full print (capture of 20210108) UK Government Web Archive.
  5. ↑ The Sobell Foundation accounts, year ended 2014-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  6. ↑ The Sobell Foundation accounts, year ended 2015-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  7. ↑ The Sobell Foundation accounts, year ended 2016-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  8. ↑ The Sobell Foundation accounts, year ended 2017-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  9. ↑ The Sobell Foundation accounts, year ended 2018-04-05 UK Government Web Archive (capture of 20200108).
  10. ↑ Charity Commission, Register of Charities, charity overview page (register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search/-/charity-details/ followed by the organisation number) for every charity in batches 1–7 (175 pages, all retrieved successfully on 15 October 2026) and checked for a "Regulatory alerts" section. Alerts appeared only for Mifal Hachesed Vehatzedokoh (1139320), Ezer Viznitz Foundation (1161881), BC Trust (1155555), Vyoel Moshe Charitable Trust (327054) – all named in the cheque-cashing class inquiry – and The Gevurath Ari Torah Academy Trust (1003102).
  11. ↑ Charity Commission, Serious concerns over use of £22 million triggers investigation by charity regulator GOV.UK, 14 May 2025.
  12. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator opens next phase of investigation into 105 charities connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 1 September 2025 (re-fetched 14 October 2026).
  13. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator announces next charities to be investigated as part of inquiry connected to company cashing cheques GOV.UK, 4 December 2025 (re-fetched 14 October 2026).
  14. ↑ Charity Commission, Regulator concludes investigation into 4 charities as class inquiry continues GOV.UK, 9 September 2026, with Statement of the results of a class inquiry (same date), both retrieved 15 October 2026.
  15. ↑ Charity Commission, Charity regulator opens inquiry into charities working in illegal Israeli settlements GOV.UK, 5 August 2026, retrieved 15 October 2026 (a fact-finding statutory class inquiry initially involving 8 charities which "are not being publicly named at this time").
  16. ↑ Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, Scottish Charity Register download OSCR, CharityExport-14-Oct-2026.csv, downloaded 14 October 2026; keyword search of charity names for the batch-4 charities found no matching Scottish registration.
  17. ↑ Charity Commission for Northern Ireland, Register of charities search API CCNI, searched 14 October 2026 (keyword searches for each batch-4 charity name returned zero results).
  18. ↑ The Gazette: notices matching 'Sobell Foundation' The Gazette, searched 14 October 2026.
  19. ↑ 360Giving API: grants received by GB-CHC-274369 360Giving, queried 14 October 2026.
  20. ↑ Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Sanctions List (CSV); Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets (ConList.csv). Batch-4 screening covered 354 name strings: the 25 charity names, current register trustees, trustees named on archived register pages and archived full-print register pages (UK Government Web Archive) and Companies House officers of the 8 charitable companies; matching on surname plus forename tokens, reviewed manually (all candidate hits were surname-only coincidences or generic company-word overlaps); lists downloaded October 2026.
  21. ↑ HM Land Registry, Search for land and property information GOV.UK, accessed 14 October 2026; no titles were looked up or purchased. Candidate title numbers below come from the free CCOD / OCOD datasets (October 2026 release), not from paid title registers.
  22. ↑ UK Parliament, Hansard search API: contributions matching 'Sobell Foundation' Hansard, queried 14 October 2026 (Spoken and Written endpoints).
  23. ↑ Internet Archive CDX index for sobellfoundation.org.uk Wayback Machine, queried 14 October 2026.
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