Sigrid Rausing Trust

Activity

• Sigrid Rausing Trust (SRT) is a “UK grant making foundation, founded in 1995 by Sigrid Rausing to support human rights globally. Since then, the Trust has given away approximately £299 million to human rights organisations all over the world.”
• The Trust states: “Since all political parties or movements, and all governments, have the potential to abuse human rights, we ask that our grantees’ commitment to human rights transcend political loyalties.”
• SRT supports numerous NGOs active in the Arab-Israeli conflict, some of which engage in anti-Israel delegitimization campaigns and promote a narrow political agenda inconsistent with the stated principles.
• According to SRT, “all SRT grantees sign a contract binding them to certain clauses, including an agreement to avoid glorifying or promoting violence or using language that is inflammatory or discriminatory.” 

Developments Since October 7 Hamas Massacre

• Following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-orchestrated massacre, SRT “reviewed the social media and website communications of all of its grantees.” In December 2023, SRT claimed that “a small number of them [Sigrid Rausing Trust’s NGO grantees] had issued statements which contravene our terms and conditions by legitimising or even celebrating Hamas’ violent attacks against civilians, or by using de-legitimising and / or inaccurate language about Israel…” SRT “cancelled some grants, and withdrawn invitations to apply for further funding from a few other organisations….None of the affected organisations are based in Israel or Palestine.”
  • According to a February 2025 statement, “Following the Hamas atrocities against civilians on October 7th we cancelled two grants with groups we deemed to be in breach of contract. One described the massacre of 7th October as a ‘quality operation’; the second (no less shockingly) expressed ‘pride’ in the ‘heroic Al Aqsa Flood battle initiated by the Palestinian resistance factions against the usurping Zionist enemy’ and expressed ‘appreciation to the fighting resistance factions’ [sic].”
  • SRT “rescinded invitations to apply for further grants to three organisations, including a feminist sub granter that shortly after October 7th published a statement about the events in Israel and Gaza which concluded with the controversial sentence, ‘We affirm the right of all oppressed peoples to self-determine their resistance’. To morally condone atrocities against civilians is not compatible with the human rights and feminist values which inform our grant-making, and the group would not have received further funding from us.”
• In December 2025, Sigrid Rausing published an article in the Times (UK), “Antisemitism is infecting human rights groups — my charity had to act.”  Rausing wrote: “After the October 7 atrocities, a handful — only five out of some 400 — had posted disturbing material” including “a group in Canada that almost immediately termed Israel’s actions ‘genocidal’, and described the country as a ‘settler colonialist white-supremacist state’.” According to the article, “Atrocities against civilians are obviously contrary to human rights and international humanitarian law, and we cancelled our contracts with the groups in question. It wasn’t a hard decision to make…Some members of the International Human Rights Funders Network were said to be ‘uncomfortable’ about sharing a platform with us at a conference, so we withdrew. We should have held our ground, I now think — we might have persuaded some of them that sympathy with a cause (or a people) can never justify violence against civilians.”

Funding

• In 2024, total income was £28.95 million; total expenses were £26.33 million. 
  • In 2023, total income was £82.6 million; total expenses were £55.1 million.
• SRT’s finances are transparent, with past and current grantees listed clearly and details such as amounts and project duration provided.
• SRT states that it funds organizations, not projects: “Most of our grants take the form of core grants, or in other words grants that are not ear-marked for specific projects…We believe that organisations are more imaginative and innovative if they are able to follow their own ideas rather than donor-driven projects.” (emphasis added)
• One of SRT’s “Guiding Principles” is “long-term relationships with grantees.” It is unknown if and how SRT evaluates long-term grantees, and how SRT responds to false claims, bias and political exploitation of human rights by its grantees.

Sigrid Rausing Trust’s Current Grantees

Click Here for a Complete List of the Current Grantees

Past Grantees