What Indigo Trust does

Indigo Trust is a UK-registered grant-making charitable foundation (Charity No. 1075920) established in 1999 by Fran Perrin OBE. It is one of 16 independent grant-making trusts that together constitute the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts (SFCT), and operates with a three-person part-time core team plus shared SFCT central services from a headquarters at The Peak, 5 Wilton Road, London.

Indigo provides flexible, multi-year, unrestricted grant funding to early-stage organisations addressing systemic injustices across six thematic areas: Access to Justice (UK and Global), Racial Justice, Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, Women's Rights, Better Grant-making practice, and Visual Impairment/Eye Health. Proposal submission is by invitation only, with grantees identified through Indigo's own networks, proactive research and referrals from existing grantee-partners and peer funders. Beyond direct grants, Indigo funds research, contributes to pooled funds (e.g., Justice Together, Independent Human Rights Fund for Scotland), and uses its influence to champion grantees to other potential donors and partners.

Indigo's revenue derives entirely from the Sainsbury family endowment and associated investment returns rather than commercial activity; figures are not publicly disclosed. It is not a technology company and offers no products, platforms or APIs. Operational differentiators include light-touch reporting requirements, an 'at least one year's notice' commitment when leaving a funding area, and a 2025-launched 'Funder Plus' capacity-building layer. Indigo maintains transparency via 360Giving open-data publishing and Foundation Practice Rating participation.

Name

Indigo Trust

Legal name

The Indigo Trust

Website

https://indigotrust.org.uk

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Indigo Trust is a UK-registered Sainsbury Family Charitable Trust that provides flexible, unrestricted grant funding to early-stage organisations working on access to justice, racial justice, child sexual abuse prevention, women's rights, better grant-making, and visual impairment.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Philanthropic Foundation / Grant-making

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

akta.pro primary industry

Social Justice & Human Rights Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAN)

akta.pro secondary industry

Private Foundations (BPAGAKAA)

Keywords

• Charitable grant-making
• Unrestricted funding
• Access to justice
• Racial justice grants
• Philanthropic foundation

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Charitable Grant-making: Indigo Trust operates as a grant-making foundation, distributing funds to early-stage organisations addressing systemic injustices. Revenue is derived from the foundation's endowment and investment returns rather than commercial activities.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

The Indigo Trust is a UK-registered charitable foundation that supports early-stage organisations through flexible, unrestricted grant-making, commissioning research, contributing to pooled funds, and building partnerships to address systemic injustices. It focuses on Access to Justice, Racial Justice, Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, Women's Rights, Better Grant-making, and Visual Impairment. Proposals are accepted by invitation only.

Product overview

Indigo Trust is a UK-based grant-making charitable foundation established in 1999. It is not a technology product company; it operates as a philanthropic organization that provides flexible, unrestricted funding to early-stage organizations addressing systemic injustices. The organization does not offer software products, platforms, or technology services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Invitation-only Flexible Grant Programme
• Funder Plus capacity-building support

Quantifiable outcome

• 80% grantee-partner response rate on 2025 feedback survey, demonstrating strong engagement and trust

Named customers18 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Modern GrantmakingcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIn 2025, Indigo worked with Modern Grantmaking to carry out an anonymous feedback survey of grantee-partners. They made a £100 donation to each organisation to recognise the time involved. This collaboration led to improvements including onboarding calls, Partner Handbook creation, and Funder Plus development.
• Philanthropy InsightminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIn summer 2025, worked with Philanthropy Insight and other Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts to host an event for Asian philanthropists, sharing grant-making practice on impact investing, power and privilege, and participatory grant-making.
• Independent Human Rights Fund for ScotlandminorGTM or Marketing PartnerRecent funder collaboration - Indigo contributes to joint funds including this initiative.
• Justice Together InitiativecoreGTM or Marketing PartnerRecent funder collaboration - Indigo actively funds and participates in the Justice Together Initiative. Indigo also funds Justice Together Fund as a current grantee.
• Foundation Practice RatingcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndigo is an active member of FPR, which rates UK grant-makers on diversity, accountability and transparency without their permission. Indigo has co-funded this project since 2022 and contributed to discussion on improving grant-making practices.
• Association of Charitable FoundationscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndigo Trust is a member of ACF, a network that shares learning, intelligence, knowledge and best practice among charitable foundations.
• Funders TogethercoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndigo Trust provides unrestricted funding to Funders Together. Thrisha Haldar is on its board. In 2026, Indigo supported 360Giving to become part of Funders Together.
• Safe Childhoods InitiativecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndigo is an active partner in the Safe Childhoods Initiative, a collaborative initiative aimed at combating childhood sexual violence.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Barrow Cadbury Trust: UK-based independent charitable trust with similar size and a comparable grant-making model focused on social justice, criminal justice reform, and reducing inequality. Closely mirrors Indigo's issue-led, unrestricted funding approach and Birmingham/London operating geography.
• Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust: UK Quaker-rooted trust funding social justice, peace, and rights-based work with multi-year unrestricted grants. Highly comparable in grant-making philosophy, transparency commitments, and thematic focus areas such as racial justice.
• AB Charitable Trust: Small UK family foundation funding marginalised communities, refugees, and human-rights work with unrestricted grants. Closely matches Indigo's scale, model, and preference for early-stage, trust-based funding.
• Trust for London: UK grant-making trust tackling poverty and inequality in London, including access-to-justice themes. Overlaps directly with Indigo's UK access-to-justice funding area and shares a similar funder-of-funders and pooled-fund approach.
• Tudor Trust: UK independent trust offering unrestricted, multi-year funding to small, under-resourced community organisations across the UK. Strongly comparable to Indigo's approach of providing flexible core funding to early-stage, community-led organisations.
• LankellyChase Foundation: UK private foundation focused on systemic change across racial justice, criminal justice, and extreme poverty. Directly comparable to Indigo in mission, target grantees, and commitment to flexible, long-term, unrestricted funding.

Broad incumbents

• Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: One of the largest UK independent foundations funding social change, the arts, and the environment. Overlaps with Indigo on access to justice and social justice themes but operates at significantly greater scale and across a broader portfolio.
• Paul Hamlyn Foundation: Major UK grant-maker focused on social justice, education, and the arts. Comparable on flexible, unrestricted grant-making for early-stage organisations but at substantially larger scale and with a wider issue footprint.
• Oak Foundation: International family foundation funding child protection, human rights, and social justice. Directly comparable on the child sexual abuse prevention portfolio (e.g., Safe Childhoods Initiative) where Oak is a co-funder.
• Comic Relief: Large UK grant-maker supporting social justice, women's rights, and racial equity organisations, often via open application. Comparable thematic overlap but operates via mass fundraising and a much higher-volume grant model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Indigo Trust