The Gatsby Charitable Foundation

The Gatsby Charitable Foundation is an endowed grant-making trust, where trustees can give money to any charitable cause. It has strong links with the biotech industry.

Biotech

Through his Gatsby Charitable Foundation Lord Sainsbury has put millions into the study of plant genetics. Gatsby gives approximately £2 million a year to the Sainsbury Laboratory of the John Innes Centre, which does research into GM crops. Lord Sainsbury helped found the Laboratory in 1987 and his Gatsby Foundation remains its principal source of funding, although it also receives over £800,000 a year from the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) , for which Sainsbury is responsible in his ministerial role. Its grant has increased several fold during Sainsbury's time as minister.

Like his biotech investments, his Gatsby contributions have been administered through a blind trust run by his solicitor Judith Portrait since Sainsbury became UK Science Minister. Portrait is also a Gatsby trustee. Although he does not attend Gatsby meetings or make decisions, Sainsbury retains the power to appoint and dismiss its trustees.

Political Donations

Lord Sainsbury has a long record of providing donations to political parties. In the 1980s, before he was Lord Sainsbury, he provided significant funding to the Social Democrats. Once Labour moved more towards the centre of the political spectrum, he began to provide financial help to the party. It is believed that in total he donated up to £16 million to the Labour Party since 1994, when Tony Blair became leader. He was given his peerage in 1997 and became Government Minister for Science in 1998.