Part 3:Roger De Haan Charitable Trust: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Folkestone’s Million-Pound Philanthropy – A ShepwayVox Investigation

The Roger De Haan Charitable Trust (RDHT) – charity no. 276274 – is a family-run grant‐making foundation focused on Folkestone and south-east Kent. Its stated objectives cover broad categories (education, arts & heritage, community development, amateur sport, older people’s welfare, poverty relief, environmental protection and other disadvantage). In practice the RDH Trust has concentrated its giving on local projects and causes.

Trust Income And Financial Overview

The Trust’s income chiefly derives from Sir Roger De Haan’s gifts and investment returns. Annual accounts show that Sir Roger donated £4.933 m to the Trust in 2023/24 – a steep rise from only £0.083 m in 2022/23. Over the two decades to 2024, Sir Roger has contributed about £46 million. (By contrast, donations fell sharply after 2019: e.g. £1.34 m in 2019/20 and £0.72 m in 2020/21.) Other income is relatively small – investment interest and dividends were only £0.08–0.31 million per year in recent years. The Trust’s investment portfolio delivered mixed returns: it lost £1.18 m in 2019/20, gained £1.79 m in 2020/21, and saw modest gains or losses since (e.g. –£0.19 m in 2022/23). Overall, the Trust ran deficits in those project-heavy years (e.g. –£3.435 m in 2019/20, –£3.301 m in 2020/21) and again in 2022/23 (–£1.253 m), but returned to a £4.779 m surplus in 2023/24 due to Sir Roger’s one-off £4.9 m gift. Investment income yields have been around 2–2.5% annually.

Aside from cash, the Trust recognises “gifts in kind” for services donated by Sir Roger’s staff. For example, in 2023/24 the Trust notes that Sir Roger provided his accounting staff free of charge, and their value is included as income/expenditure. Otherwise the Trust’s overheads are minimal – no trustee takes any fee or expenses – so almost all spending goes to charitable grants.

Grantmaking Trends By Category

RDHT has consistently made dozens of grants each year, almost entirely to Kent-based charities. In 2019/20 it made ~96 grants, 60+ in 2020/21, ~70 in 2021/22 and ~65 in 2022/23, and ~83 in 2023/24. The vast majority of grants (96–99%) have been to Folkestone and surrounding districts. Spending peaked around 2020–22 due to major capital projects, then subsided. For example, total grants and donations were £3.5 m in 2019/20, rose to £6.6 m in 2020/21, then £5.4 m in 2021/22, before falling back to £1.0 m in 2022/23 and £0.663 m in 2023/24. Key one-off gifts explain much of this volatility: e.g. a £2.5 m grant to the local Sports Trust in 2019/20 and a £5.0 m donation to Creative Folkestone in 2020/21. With those behind it, recent grant‐making has been more “normal” sized.

Grants for Arts and Culture (£000) by year (FYE 2020–24). Data: RDH Trust Annual Reports 2019/20–2023/24. Arts giving similarly surged around 2020–22 due to property deals for Creative Folkestone. Arts-related grants jumped from only £0.316 m in 2019/20 to £5.211 m in 2020/21 and £4.564 m in 2021/22. Without those major one-off donations (the Creative Quarter leases), arts grants later fell to £0.203 m in 2022/23 and £0.099 m in 2023/24.

Grants for Education and Youth (£000) by year (FYE 2020–24). Data: RDH Trust Annual Reports 2019/20–2023/24. By contrast, the Trust’s education grants have been consistently modest. Around £40–50 k is given each year – e.g. £0.048 m in 2019/20 through £0.042 m in 2023/24. These smaller gifts support local schools and youth initiatives but are dwarfed by the larger projects above.

Aside from sport, arts and education, the Trust also funds community development, health & welfare, heritage and poverty-relief groups. Community‐development grants have been under £0.12 m per year (e.g. £0.102 m in 2019/20, £0.060 m in 2020/21, £0.117 m in 2021/22, £0.043 m in 2022/23, £0.089 m in 2023/24), helping local festivals, halls, play‐parks and volunteer groups. Health & Welfare grants (supporting older people, medical charities, disability groups, refuges, etc.) likewise have been around £0.08–0.33 m annually (e.g. £0.327 m in 2019/20, £0.123 m in 2020/21, £0.085 m in 2021/22, £0.135 m in 2022/23, £0.101 m in 2023/24). International grants are minimal – typically a handful of £50k appeals – so this category runs at only a few tens of thousands (e.g. £0.052 m in 2021/22, £0.050 m in 2022/23, £0.026 m in 2023/24).

Creative Folkestone And The Creative Quarter

One major capital initiative has been the Folkestone Creative Quarter. Since 2003 the Trust has bought up and refurbished derelict buildings in Folkestone’s old town, leasing them to the arts charity Creative Folkestone at peppercorn rent. By early 2021 the Trust had spent about £45.9 m on acquisitions/refurbishment; by April 2022 this rose to ~£48.4–48.6 m. The project aims to regenerate the town’s historic core and to make Creative Folkestone financially self-sustaining through rental income. Trustees report that the physical regeneration has “restored what was a very badly run-down area … into a vibrant and successful part of the town”. By 2023 the refurbishment was largely complete.

These property deals show up in the Trust’s figures as large “donations” (leases expensed as grants). For example, no property lease gift was made in 2019/20, but in 2020/21 the Trust booked a £5.0 m donation to Creative Folkestone and in 2021/22 a £4.0 m donation. Smaller arts funding includes support for local festivals: the Trust’s “Festival Fund” to Creative Folkestone grew from £0.402 m at April 2023 and the Trust added £0.050 m to it in 2023/24. Other arts grants have been given to museum access schemes and exhibitions (e.g. £25k in 2019 to the Art Fund, £0.3 m in 2021 to the Folkestone Triennial). Cumulatively, the Trust has funded five Triennials since 2008 with ~£5.8 m in total and has purchased many public art pieces in Folkestone (now 92 works on display). In short, the Creative Quarter and Triennial have transformed Folkestone’s cultural life, with RDHT underwriting most of the start-up costs.

Sports And Facilities (F51, Three Hills)

Amateur sports is another core focus. Over ten years to 2022 the Trust spent ~£22–23 million on local sports (by 2021 it was £22.2 m; by 2023 £22.8 m). This includes grants to clubs and the Sports Trust, but the bulk of the funding has gone to major facilities. The flagship project has been F51, a multi-storey extreme sports centre in Folkestone Old Town (skateboarding, BMX, climbing etc.) run by The Sports Trust (formerly Shepway Sports Trust). After delays from COVID, F51 finally opened in early 2022. The RDH Trust funded almost the entire cost: it committed £13.1 m by early 2021, £14.2 m by early 2022 (including £0.706 m of developer-prepaid costs), and £14.6 m by 2023. (In 2023/24 it also gave a further £0.5 m to The Sports Trust to complete the F51 project.) The Trust has also funded the Sports Trust’s core operations (some £1.37 m since 2014) and other school-sports initiatives (e.g. £0.185 m extra in 2020/21) to encourage youth activity. As Trustees note, supporting local sport “also assists the wider regeneration of the town”.

Grants for Sport (£000) by year (financial year ending April 2020–24). Data: RDH Trust Annual Reports 2019/20–2023/24. The Trust’s spending on amateur sports (especially Folkestone-area) dominated early years and has since tapered off. In 2019/20 over £2.68 m went to sport (mostly to an extreme sports centre), but by 2023/24 only £0.255 m was granted.

Another large capital grant is the new athletics centre at Three Hills. In 2019/20 the Trust approved a £1.0 m commitment to build an eight-lane track, field-event areas and clubhouse for the Cheriton Road Sports Ground Trust. By 2023 this figure had risen to £1.2–1.25 m. The first phase of the track opened in July 2023. (The new facility replaces the old Three Hills track, which was itself built earlier with a £7.5 m RDHT grant in previous years.) Including F51 and Three Hills, the Trust has now injected some £24.6 m into sports development since 2005. These large capital gifts explain why “Sport” dominated the 2019/20 grants (£2.681 m) and why sporting projects show up repeatedly in the accounts.

Community Development And Heritage

RDHT also supports many local community initiatives. Annual report highlights mention backing village halls, youth clubs, play-grounds, and volunteer groups. For example, the Trust continues to fund an East Folkestone community‐development worker to tackle poverty and cohesion. In 2021/22 it helped set up a COVID emergency fund for volunteers and gave laptops to disadvantaged schoolchildren. Modest grants (~£40–117 k per year) went to dozens of local charities and events (churches, festivals, the Rainbow Centre for hardship relief, etc.).

Heritage is also a thread: the Trust notes its past support for church restorations and conservation-area work, especially in Folkestone’s old town. By underwriting Creative Folkestone’s property regeneration (see above), the Trust has effectively preserved and re-used heritage buildings. In sum, while community grants are smaller than in sport or arts, they reflect a continuing emphasis on local regeneration and volunteerism.

Health, Welfare And Mental Health

Health and welfare causes are another priority. Each year the Trust funds hospices, homelessness charities, medical and disability charities, child welfare groups, refugee support and the Samaritans, among others. For example, 2019/20 giving supported homeless services, hospices, medical aid charities, child and disability services, and a refugee youth network. In 2020/21 it gave £50k to the Kent & Medway Medical School Development Fund (helping open a new Canterbury medical school). Recent reports similarly note grants to older-isolated person charities and medical/disability support organizations. These varied beneficiaries align with the Trust’s object to advance welfare of older or disadvantaged people.

A notable health initiative is Folkestone Haven (initially “Safe Haven”), a partnership with the NHS and Kent Community Foundation to provide round-the-clock mental-health support. This community-based centre opened around 2019/20 and offers crisis intervention outside hospital hours. The Trust committed £180,000 over three years to get it started, and as of 2023 the NHS has extended funding for an additional term. Trustees highlight that the Haven provides services “365 days a year” and is valued by police and health services for its early-intervention support. This is a prime example of RDHT leveraging partnerships (with NHS/KCF) to address local mental health needs.

Overall in Health & Welfare, the RDH Trust has functioned as a backstop. Even though annual spending in this category has been on the order of only £0.08–0.33 m per year, those grants have underwritten a wide safety net of local care services.

International Relief

The Trust’s international giving has been very limited and mainly through the British Red Cross. The annual reports for 2021/22 through 2023/24 note only a few such appeals: £50k to the Red Cross Ukraine Emergency Appeal in 2021/22, £50k to the Red Cross Turkey/Syria Earthquake Appeal in 2022/23, and £25k to the Red Cross Morocco Earthquake Appeal in 2023/24. These are the sole contributors to the “International” totals above (which were only £52k in 2021/22, £50k in 2022/23 and £26k in 2023/24). In context, this is quite small – for example, £0.05 m is only 5% of the £1.02 m granted in total in 2022/23 – underscoring that RDHT’s focus remains overwhelmingly local.

Beneficiares And Impact

In concrete terms, beneficiaries of RDHT support include hundreds of local organisations. Reports list dozens by name: for example in one year grants aided local hospices, a homelessness charity, medical research and disability charities, a refugee support network and the Samaritans. Other years saw contributions to community health groups, older-people clubs, scout troops, and schools sports programs. Folkestone’s major cultural bodies (e.g. Creative Folkestone, the Folkestone Book Festival, arts centres) have received long-term backing. The recently opened F51 centre and the forthcoming Three Hills track are facilities that will benefit generations of Kentish youth. Meanwhile small grants – to things like community choirs, veterans’ groups or churchyards – quietly bolster local civic life.

Local journalists note that the RDH Trust’s strategy has mirrored Folkestone’s story: using private philanthropy to regenerate the seaside town. Its grants have restored historic buildings, created new art trails and sports facilities, and plugged gaps in welfare services. Each annual report emphasizes that 96–99% of giving stays in Folkestone/surrounding area. Trust officials argue this generates “public benefit” by making Folkestone a better place to live, work or visit.

On the other hand, the accounts show that the Trust’s generosity can fluctuate widely depending on Sir Roger’s injections. The £4.9 m gift in 2023/24 – unbudgeted in prior plans – has essentially refilled the coffers after several lean years. Without such donations the Trust would run larger deficits when funding big projects. Indeed, over the six-year period covered here, Sir Roger’s giving has covered almost all the grant outlay: total grants in 2019/20–2023/24 sum to about £16.2 m, while he donated about £7.1 m (with most of that coming in 2024). The Trust’s investment fund is large (around £25–27 m) but only yields a few tenths of a million per year.

The RDH Trust appears poised to continue its focused philanthropy. The final page of the 2023/24 report notes that major capital projects (the Creative Quarter and F51) are largely complete, leaving the Trust with a more sustainable grant budget going forward. It will likely maintain support for community development and health services in Folkestone, along with any new needs that arise. For Kent residents, these statements and figures offer a clear map of the Trust’s priorities and influence – from leisure and culture to social welfare – underpinned by Sir Roger’s personal largesse.

The Shepway Vox Team

Discernibly Different Dissent