The Monday Charitable Trust (MCT) is a grantmaking foundation, whose key thematic areas for providing charitable support are Housing, Education and Environmental Crises, underpinned by secondary themes of Young People, Mental Health and Social Mobility and Inequality. The Charity aims to improve life chances of disadvantaged and often marginalised groups in the United Kingdom, while providing support to charities tackling environmental crises.
We fund programmes which address or seek to identify the root causes of issues. We regard the Charity as a long-term funder which is able to be flexible and independent, willing to support innovative ideas for tackling problems, as we believe that such programmes will deliver the greatest social impact over the long term.
Chelsea Estates Limited is an integral part of our history. It was incorporated on 18 April 1932 and had a long and successful history as a property investment company. It was founded by John Munday and was carried on after his death first by his son, Reginald, and then by his son-in-law, Harold Lane. After Harold Lane’s death, the company was run by his son, Robert Lane.
Under Robert Lane’s stewardship, the company was transformed. It moved away from investing in residential property and into a wide range of commercial property – in the retail, industrial and office sectors.
MCT is the successor charity to a charitable trust of the same name which was created by Robert and Elspeth Lane in January 2008
In 2013, Robert Lane made the very generous gift of all the shares in Chelsea Estates Limited to the charitable trust he and Elspeth had created in 2008. As a result, ownership of the company passed to the trust.
MCT was itself formed in 2017, as a precursor to a reorganisation which took place the following year, in which the assets of the predecessor charitable trust and its subsidiary, Chelsea Estates Limited, were transferred to it.
In 2018, the Trustees agreed to make a capital grant of £1m to the Royal College of Art to mark the long relationship between Chelsea Estates and the College, which for many years occupied one of the Company’s properties in Battersea. The grant has been applied towards the creation of a state-of-the-art building on the Battersea site for postgraduate students and entrepreneurs, delivering new studios, workshops and incubator units to support the College's future.
In May 2022, The Monday Charity Library and Lane Library Terrace were opened as key areas in the Royal College of Art’s new Battersea campus, forming the heart of its collaborative and social spaces.
Robert Lane was born in 1932 in London. His prep school in Chichester was evacuated to Cornwall during the war. He went to Sherborne School and afterwards did his two years’ National Service in the Royal Tank Regiment.
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MCT is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 17 August 2017 (company registration number 10910936) and registered with the Charity Commissioners as a charity (charity registration number 1174232). MCT’s governing document is the Articles of Association dated 17 August 2017, as amended by Special Resolution dated 23 April 2019.
The minimum number of trustees required by the Articles is three and the maximum is eight. Robert and Elspeth Lane, Jonathan Brinsden and Sarah Baxter were the four original trustees. They became Founder Trustees and serve an indefinite term based on their relative experience and contribution to MCT as a whole.
New trustees are Elected Trustees and serve a term of three years. They are appointed by ordinary resolution and may serve a maximum of two terms. They may thereafter be reappointed annually if recommended by the chairman.
The Trustees have delegated certain responsibilities to two committees.
The Management and Operations (Ops) Committee reviews the financial and governance arrangements for the Charity. The Ops Committee is responsible for reporting to the Trustees on investment and property matters and directing the investment managers and property advisers as appropriate.
The Investment Committee has responsibility in connection with the benchmarking of investment performance, adherence to the Charity’s investment policy and to support the development of the Charity’s overall investment strategy and aims regarding the Charity’s quoted and unquoted investments.
In 2024, in a review of the Charity’s investment strategy and requirements, the Trustees considered various approaches to sustainable investment in the context of the Spectrum of Capital Model (below) and the FCA’s Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR), as well as climate change.
Source: Bridges Impact + and the Impact Management Project
The Spectrum of Capital is a way of mapping the broad range of risk/return strategies in sustainable and social impact investing, from investing for maximum profit with no regard to impact through to philanthropic investment with potential loss of capital. This is overlaid with Impact Management’s ABC model: Avoid Harm / Benefit Stakeholders / Contribute to Solutions, which seeks to further classify investments focusing on their impact on people and the planet.
In addition to the spectrum of capital framework, some investment managers aim to align with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to identify areas where they can engage with companies to encourage best practice, as well as areas where they can identify investment opportunities.
Following a selection process undertaken by an independent consultancy firm, the Trustees appointed CCLA and Sarasin & Partners as their principal investment managers on a fully delegated basis. The Trustees have agreed an investment policy and have asked both CCLA and Sarasin & Partners to invest on a total return basis with income reinvested. A benchmark of CPI + 4% will be applied to the investment portfolio.
In addition, the Trustees decided that up to 15% of the Charity’s net assets would be allocated to Social investments and Impact investments, both of which would be focused on the three thematic areas of the Charity - Housing, Education and Environmental Crises.
The expectation of the Trustees is that the companies selected for investment and managers of the funds appointed by CCLA and Sarasin will exclude those with poor ESG ratings, allowing for engagement with fund managers to improve ESG ratings. The Charity’s Investment Committee will periodically discuss and review the ESG ratings with CCLA and Sarasin as part of their monitoring role.
The Trustees have requested CCLA and Sarasin to be proactive on their behalf by encouraging the companies selected for investment and managers of the funds appointed by them to engage on issues that are aligned with their impact goals, focusing on ESG factors and exercising their voting rights on the Charity’s behalf to encourage better corporate governance. CCLA and Sarasin will continue reporting, monitoring and challenging the company and fund managers on their ESG performance.
MCT is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 17 August 2017 (company registration number 10910936) and registered with the Charity Commissioners as a charity (charity registration number 1174232). MCT’s governing document is the Articles of Association dated 17 August 2017, as amended by Special Resolution dated 23 April 2019.
The minimum number of trustees required by the Articles is three and the maximum is eight. The four original trustees are the Founder Trustees and serve an indefinite term based on their relative experience and contribution to MCT as a whole.
New trustees are Elected Trustees and serve a term of three years. They are appointed by ordinary resolution and may serve a maximum of two terms. They may thereafter be reappointed annually if the recommended by the Chair.
The Trustees have delegated certain responsibilities to two Committees.
The Management and Operations (Ops) Committee reviews the financial and governance arrangements for the Charity. The Ops Committee is responsible for reporting to the Trustees on investment and property matters and directing the investment managers as appropriate.
The Programme Related Investment (PRI) Committee (the Tuesday Committee) reviews PRI investment opportunities, obtains advice on them as needed and then advises the Board on the level of investment and terms.
In 2019, after the reorganisation of the Charity, the Trustees reviewed their investment advisers and decided, after careful consideration, to appoint Mercer as the sole investment manager on a fully delegated basis. The Trustees have agreed a policy and have asked Mercer to invest on a total return basis with income reinvested. A benchmark of CPI + 4% is applied to the investment portfolio.
We are committed to providing clear, timely information on our finances and grantmaking efforts. Annual reports are available via the links below.
Download 2025 Annual Report (PDF)