Littlewoods heir’s philanthropy to end after 50 years
Lest we think that charity will continue to provide the crucial underpinning to a number of our rural services this article reveals that there are limits to the giving of even the most philanthropic.
One of the UK’s most active philanthropists, the Littlewoods heir Sir Peter Moores, is calling time on his charitable foundation after 50 years during which time he has given more than £215m to the arts, education and health.
His money has particularly benefited opera and the visual arts, and to mark the end there will be a swansong project involving eight of the opera companies with which the foundation has been most closely associated over the decades.
Moores, aged 80, said he was spending what was left in the ways he wanted it to be used. He did not want to continue the fund after his death. “You can’t trust anyone to do what you would have wanted because if they’re any good, and you wouldn’t use someone who wasn’t any good … they’ll have their own ideas.”