RHODES TRUST - PUBLIC PURPOSES FUND

Registered charity 232492 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q24035936 · also known as THE RHODES TRUST

To provide financial scholarships to enable students from selected countries, to pursue a post graduate or second undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford. To make benefactions or donations for primarily educational purposes.

Objects

TO APPLY INCOME AND/OR CAPITAL FOR PROMOTION OR ADVANCEMENT IN THE BRITISH COMMONWEALTH AND U S A OF EDUCATIONAL OR OTHER CHARITABLE PURPOSES IN ANY WAY THE TRUSTEES THINK FIT.

Area of benefit: BRITISH EMPIRE-COMMONWEALTH AND U S A

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Education/training · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Oxford, South East, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that net assets increased by £1.9m to £547.6m, with total resources expended at £62.6m. The charity holds £11.5m in free reserves, which the Trustees consider sufficient to meet present needs, while noting that the investment performance objective was not met for the year.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Saffery LLP. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Campaigns and political activity policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Engaging external speakers at charity events policy and procedures
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Investing charity funds policy and procedures
• Investment
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Corporate structure

• Trading subsidiary: RHODES HOUSE LIMITED Companies House 06539418

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Chrystia Freeland — Warden & CEO (source)
• Professor Sir Rick Trainor KBE — Interim Warden and CEO (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

• The Atlantic Philanthropies — “With The Atlantic Philanthropies” (source page)
• Schmidt Futures — “With Schmidt Futures” (source page)
• Mastercard Foundation — “Secured the $50 million Mastercard Foundation Scholars Programme” (source page)
• Second Century Founders — “The Rhodes Trust provides the Rhodes Scholarships in partnership with the Second Century Founders, John McCall MacBain O.C. and The Atlantic…” (source page)
• John McCall MacBain O.C. — “The Rhodes Trust provides the Rhodes Scholarships in partnership with the Second Century Founders, John McCall MacBain O.C. and The Atlantic…” (source page)

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (51,397 followers) · instagram

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 30/06/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~2.2 months of spending — below the median for charities its size (median 4.6 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 15.4% of total income — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 3.7%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Christopher George Oechsli
• Douglas Alexander Beck
• Dr Azure Tariro Makadzange
• Frederick Swaniker
• Menaka Guruswamy
• Michael Clifford Fitzpatrick
• Neeti Bhalla Johnson
• PROFESSOR OLADAPO OLADIPO OLAKUNLE AKANDE · trustee of 1 other charity
• PROFESSOR SIR JOHN IRVING BELL · trustee of 1 other charity
• Peter Stamos
• Professor Catherine Mary Elizabeth O'Regan · trustee of 2 other charities
• Professor Charlotte Mary Deane MBE
• Professor ELLEKE BOEHMER · trustee of 1 other charity
• Robert Andrew Sternfels
• Robert Steven Harrison
• Sir Nigel Shadbolt · trustee of 1 other charity
• Swati Mylavarapu

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Oxfordshire · United States

Income and spending

Common questions

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE ROWLAND EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION.

• THE ROWLAND EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION income £378k
• THE OPEN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS' EDUCATIONAL TRUST income £114k
• THE ROTHES CHARITABLE TRUST income £148k
• THE NORTHCOTE TRUST income £179k
• THE SEKFORDE HOUSE TRUST income £96k
• THE EDWARD ROSE CHARITABLE TRUST income £84k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.