Angel investor and business mentor Mark Lyttleton is the driving force behind Percent For Good, a charity he founded after working in the City of London for more than 20 years, recognising the importance of giving back to society.
Percent For Good operates five Cause Portfolios, each comprising a selection of carefully curated, high-impact charities selected according to the charity’s stringent criteria. In addition to strong governance, the organisation focuses on charities with limited resources, supporting those with annual income of less than £10 million – recognising the potential of smaller yet extremely impactful charities that simply lack the fundraising capabilities of their bigger contemporaries. Percent For Good also prioritises causes with a compelling vision that leverage partnership in local communities to deliver great results.
Percent For Good’s five Cause Portfolio categories are:
- Health & Wellbeing
- Cost-of-Living Crisis
- Nature & Environment
- Education & Arts
- Social Mobility
Percent For Good’s Health & Wellbeing Portfolio
1% of the average monthly salary of London-based finance professionals equates to between £50 and £100. By pledging this sum to Percent For Good’s Health & Wellbeing portfolio, benefactors can support a host of worthy causes like the mental health charity Sport In Mind, an organisation created to transform mental health across the UK through sport. To date, Sport In Mind has supported more than 25,000 individuals experiencing mental health problems through physical activity and sport, with 94% of service users reporting an improvement in their mental wellbeing after participating in activities organised by the charity.
Another cause included in Percent For Good’s Health & Wellbeing Portfolio is CALM, a charity launched to protect and improve the mental health and wellbeing of men across the UK. In Britain each day, an average of 18 people commit suicide, with 75% of these preventable deaths occurring in males. CALM focuses on prevention of suicide through the provision of support services, offering advice, information and counselling. Having reported £7.6 million in income in 2023, CALM deploys 78% of donations directly to its charitable activities.
For young people, CALM prevents suicide by providing C.A.R.E. Kits, an innovative resource that helps them to learn lifesaving suicide prevention skills, teaching people what to do if they think a friend is having suicidal thoughts. Each module of the C.A.R.E. Kit contains expert advice to help users support young people, teaching them to Check in; Ask; Remain close; and seek Expert help where appropriate.
Safelives is another charity backed by Percent For Good. Partnering with other organisations across the UK, the charity helps individuals and families to escape domestic abuse. To date, Safelives has trained 11,500 first responders and professionals and reached 100,000 child and 90,000 adult survivors.
Other charities included in Percent For Good’s Health & Wellbeing Cause Portfolio include Grief Encounter, a child bereavement charity that supports bereaved children and their families, and Re-engage, a charity launched to make life less lonely for thousands of elderly people through its telephone befriending services, monthly tea parties and activity groups. Having reported £2.1 million in income in 2023, Re-engage directs an impressive 90% of donations to its charitable activities.
Having donated via Payroll Giving himself throughout his career, Mark Lyttleton was attracted by the simplicity of the giving process but rarely found the time to research the charities he was donating to. This kernel of an idea lies at the heart of Percent For Good, a charity conceived to provide donors with an easy way of giving regularly to causes they feel passionately about. Percent For Good’s Cause Portfolios are an innovation in the giving space, allowing donations to be spread across a carefully curated selection of charities conducting groundbreaking work on the ground, thereby widening the impact of each and every donation.
