RHODES TRUST - PUBLIC PURPOSES FUND

Registered charity 232492 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · 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.

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

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.

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 3.8%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Christopher George Oechsli
• Douglas Alexander Beck
• Dr Charlotte Mary Deane MBE
• Dr Tariro Makadzange
• Frederick Swaniker
• 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 ELLEKE BOEHMER · trustee of 1 other charity
• Robert Andrew Sternfels
• Robert Steven Harrison
• Samuel Andrew Banks
• 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 RHODI CHARITABLE TRUST.

• RHODI CHARITABLE TRUST income £184k
• HARPER ADAMS UNIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT TRUST income £412k
• OXFORD LITERARY AND DEBATING UNION CHARITABLE TRUST income £216k
• WILLIAMS COLLEGE OXFORD PROGRAMME income £147k
• THE UNIV. OLD MEMBERS' TRUST income £185k
• THE RECORD CHARITABLE TRUST income £208k

Side by side with its peers

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