Building futures

Lucille Grant meets Putney philanthropist Charlotte Grobien

Above: Charlotte Grobien

Charlotte has lived in Putney for 11 years and her two-year-old enterprise Give it Away has far surpassed her expectations. "I originally thought I’d renovate a property to sell for a profit of £50,000 but the opportunity for new-build came up and, instead, over £650,000 has been raised," she says. "I gave away the first £200,000 in December and another £450,000 this spring and the feeling was great. I know that the money I am giving the charities is making a difference. I am delighted that, after all the hard work, it turned out like this!"

Many of the charities that Charlotte supports are based locally and dependent upon donations to survive as most of them do not receive Government support. Charlotte’s passion for philanthropy means she gets personally involved in the projects themselves, visiting and taking part in activities in order to make a difference to individual people’s lives. "I feel I’ve been enormously privileged to meet and help the young people who are receiving the direct benefit of this money," she says.

Four years ago, Charlotte undertook a major property conversion on her own home. "Because we have five cats we couldn’t move out and had to live through the upheaval, but nothing can prepare you for six months of intense building work. The end result was worth it and that was in no small part due to the excellent team we had around us. Once the decision was taken to do it all again, the idea for Give it Away took shape."

Charlotte researched the market, discovering a requirement for high specification family homes. Capital was raised through savings, as well as bank loans, to buy two plots in Putney for £1.19m. She worked hard to persuade everyone involved in her project – from her solicitor who worked pro bono, to her suppliers and her estate agent, Warrens of Putney – to offer reductions in order to maximise the profit she could raise for her charities. Putney Builders Merchants offered to give one per cent of their total spend back to the project – and did. This did not mean compromising on the properties’ specification and Charlotte ensured that the houses were eco-friendly by building timber frames. Work began in autumn 2005 and all three were sold between September 2006 and February 2007.

The job of project management fell to Charlotte and her builder Chris. "Although I had previously run my own business for many years, I discovered there were many new skills I needed to learn as I had never been involved in property before: setting up and running a website, doing the payroll for the contractors, planning the interior design, paying suppliers and researching in detail all the charities, in itself a very time-consuming job. I have worked harder than for anything else in my life, for nothing other than to raise the money which is making a positive difference to individual young lives, rather than the charity as a whole."

Charlotte had already worked for several years voluntarily at primary and secondary schools in Wandsworth, mentoring young people and at Wandsworth Prison as part of an Education Programme. She actively sought out those charities which bore some relation to these experiences. Not wanting her money to disappear into a black hole she asked them to supply her with details of what they would do with the donations, which have ranged from £5,000 to £100,000.

One donation has been made to the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon to help disadvantaged children access theatre and drama, and others to a yoga centre for seriously disabled children and to a Crohn’s research programme at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, as well as to a new, desperately needed, modern cardiac unit at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital.