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ICG publishes its second Charitable Giving Impact Report

27 March 2025

Corporate social responsibility at ICG

We are passionate about improving social mobility through access to higher education and levelling the playing field for entering our industry. We believe that this serves an important purpose for individuals and society as well as creating fairer, more robust and a more representative investment industry.

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This report highlights ICG’s impact in the second year of its Educational Opportunity Programme and the third year of its Million Meals initiative. These programmes reflect ICG’s commitment to social mobility, educational access, and global food security.

Introduction

In our third year of scaling up our social investment into the communities where we live, work and operate, ICG is proud to demonstrate our commitment and the impact of our strategically focused charitable giving in this report.

We highlight the social impact of our investments as well as the value ICG staff bring by giving back their time and expertise across a range of important global projects.

Benoît Durteste
Benoît Durteste

Benoît Durteste, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer:

ICG is giving back and investing in new and innovative ways across our society and sector. This impact report demonstrates the breadth and depth of our social impact, and I’m proud to share it with you.

Executive Summary

This report highlights ICG’s impact in the second year of its Educational Opportunity Programme and the third year of its Million Meals initiative. These programmes reflect ICG’s commitment to social mobility, educational access, and global food security.

In May 2022, ICG committed £3.75 million to its Educational Opportunity Programme, partnering with four leading charities dedicated to expanding opportunities for young people. In 2024, these initiatives supported over 4,500 young people to increase their social mobility and access to employment opportunities – significantly exceeding initial targets. Since the programme’s inception, more than 14,300 young people have benefited from ICG’s funding through the four strategic partners.

ICG has also expanded its Million Meals programme, providing over £616,000 in financial support to 10 leading charities operating across 12 countries in 2024. This funding has enabled the delivery of 1.43 million meals, reaching over 301,000 people worldwide. In addition to the previous two years, this means that ICG has directly enabled 3.5 million meals to be delivered to those in need globally.

It is also clear that a growing number of ICG colleagues mentor young people through the programmes and dedicate time which, they tell us, enriches their experience of being part of ICG. Over 250 ICG employees volunteered their time on our charitable programmes in 2024, a participation rate of over 35%, well above industry benchmarks.

ICG’s community investment continues to align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2 (Zero Hunger), 4 (Quality Education), and 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth). Looking ahead to 2025, ICG intends to further its impact with new partnerships with The Social Mobility Foundation in the UK and the Social Impact Alliance for Central & Eastern Europe in Poland, reinforcing its commitment to creating educational and employability opportunities for young people, regardless of their socioeconomic background.

Educational Opportunity & Social Mobility

ICG is passionate about improving social mobility through access to higher education and levelling the playing field for young people entering the private capital investment industry. We believe that this serves an important purpose for individuals and society, and feeds into creating a more equitable and more representative investment industry. The primary focus for ICG’s charitable giving is dedicated to creating opportunities for young people in the key markets in which we operate. In particular, we focus on:

  • Secondary education and university access
  • Supporting people to succeed at university
  • Entry into employment and beyond – widening access to our industry

Our approach provides more than just financial capital, allowing us to leverage the expertise of our colleagues to build stronger relationships and make a bigger and lasting impact.

In 2024 our main partnerships continue to be with SEO London and SEO New York, upReach and The Access Project, with delivery on the ground across the UK, France and the US. We are also delighted to announce two new partnerships for 2025 in the UK and Poland.

In Poland ICG will be supporting the Social Impact Alliance for Central & Eastern Europe to provide financial support to talented students at three major universities who might otherwise face financial barriers to continuing their studies. In the UK ICG is partnering with The Social Mobility Foundation, which will support the scaling of a degree apprenticeship programme to reduce barriers for young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds entering into highly skilled careers.

This support feeds into the UN Sustainable Development Goals 4 and 8 – aiming to provide quality education and decent work for all.

Summary of social impact:

  • Young People supported: 4,579 young people supported. This represents 11% more beneficiaries than the funding was originally intended to reach. Over 14,300 young people supported since this pillar of ICG’s strategic funding started.
  • Completed courses: 1,511 young people have completed courses, and 1,380 have secured a university place, internship, placement or some form of further study progression.
  • Volunteering: Nearly 100 ICG staff volunteered on these projects, including support with activity coordination and attendance at events.
  • Funding: £690,000 additional funding leveraged across three projects in 2024 alone.

There is evidence of significant increases in confidence, knowledge, skills and understanding of requirements to succeed in their selected field of employment.

Million Meals Initiative

In 2022, ICG launched its Million Meals initiative to support charities providing free meals to individuals and families in need due to the cost-of-living crisis and food insecurity. In that time, through our partners around the world, ICG has funded 3.5 million meals.

The initiative is growing in scale each year, with a total investment over three years of £1.69 million. In its first year the initiative provided a total of £500,000 funding to six charities globally; year two of the initiative provided over £550,000 of new funding across eight leading charities worldwide; year three has provided over £616,000 to 10 charities across the globe.

This year, again working with high quality delivery partner charities, the programme enabled those organisations to source and deliver food to nearly 8,000 community organisations working on the ground to support vulnerable people across 12 countries – with 1.4 million meals provided this year alone to at least 300,000 people.

ICG is proud to announce a new partnership with Eat Up Australia, which will deliver over 84,000 meals to school children in metro and regional areas across the country in 2025. ‘Thanks to the generous support of ICG, we have been able to grow our impact toward meeting an increasing need for lunch support at schools. We are extremely proud to be working together with ICG as we feed hungry kids across Australia so they can learn, grow and succeed’ – Elise Cook, CEO, Eat Up Australia. This project directly responds to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 2, aiming to eliminate food insecurity and hunger.

Read the full report

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This social impact report has been produced by Bean Research, working alongside The Giving Department. Bean Research helps organisations create and measure social value, The Giving Department helps companies deliver disproportionate social impact.