Join BENE UK in our efforts to create a better world for all.
Together We Can Make a Difference
Join BENE UK in our efforts to create a better world for all.
About BENE UK
Our Mission
The object of BENE UK is for public benefit, to relieve the needs of children and vulnerable adults who have disabilities and/or have experienced domestic violence, by providing grants to organisations or individuals working to relieve their specific needs.
Our History
BENE UK is a UK charity registered with the Charity Commission (number 1203241). It was founded by six Trustees that come from Finance and Charity backgrounds. At BENE UK, 100% of the donations received are donated to our causes; we pride ourselves that our costs are 100% financed by personal contributions from the Trustees and no-one receives a salary.
Our Team
Our team is made up of passionate and dedicated individuals who are committed to making a difference. We work hard to keep our costs low and the goal is to become partially or fully self-sustainable at some point in the future, in order to be able to help more causes without depending exclusively on donations.
Who We Are
Meet Our Trustees
Courtney is Founder and President of One Live To Love (https://www.onelife2love.org/), an US charity that has been operating in India for more than 10 years. Since its establishment, hundreds of lives have been transformed as a result of One Life to Love’s unique approach. However, Courtney’s vision was never to reach millions through One Life to Love. Her emphasis has always been on the innate value of every single individual. She believes in quality over quantity, stating, “Maybe I can’t help 100, 000 street children today. But I can change one child’s life today, through love, care and provision. And if I help one and you help one, then we are genuinely changing the world.” Courtney graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City with an A.A.S in Jewellery Design and B.Sc. in International Trade & Marketing.
Irene holds and has held different quant and trading senior positions in the Financial sector, having worked for both the sell-side and buy-side in the UK and Singapore.
She is the co-author of “Pricing and hedging financial derivatives: a guide for practitioners” (Wiley, 2013), and has been a guest lecturer at Imperial College London since 2017.
Irene holds an MBA from IESE Barcelona, a degree in Computer Science Engineering from her home university in Uruguay and studied finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Leonardo is Co-Head of Systematic Strategies at Ocean Leonid Investments. He was previously Head of Fixed Income Systematic at Gresham Investment Management. Before this, he was CIO and Managing Partner at Devet Capital. Prior to co-founding this firm, he was a portfolio manager with the Emerging Markets team at GLG Partners. He joined in 2010 from Barclays where he was working as a structurer in the commodities division. Before joining Barclays, Leonardo was responsible for structuring and trading algorithmic products at Banca Caboto in London. He co-authored “Pricing and hedging financial derivatives a guide for practitioners” (Wiley, 2013). He has been a guest lecturer at Queen Mary University of London presenting on structured products to Master’s in Finance students from 2011 to 2014 and at Imperial College London, Department of Mathematics, since 2017.
Silvia leads the volatility strategies and solutions at Aspect Capital, having joined from GAM Investments where she co-headed the investment team at GAM Systematic Cambridge. Previously her career included sell-side roles (Equity Derivatives Strategist with Deutsche Bank in London) as well as academia (Assistant Professor in Finance at the University of Kent). She holds a PhD from the ICMA Centre at the University of Reading, as well as and MSc in Finance and BSc in Business Economics, both from Reading, and an BSc (Diploma de Licenta) in Banking and Finance from the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies. Silvia is a member of the Government Board of the CCIMI, an Institute for the Mathematics of Information, part of the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and has been included in The Hedge Fund Journal’s 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds (2020 edition), as well as Citywire Italy’s ‘Le 25 Signore degli hedge fund del mundo’ (The 25 Women In Hedge Funds Globally, March 2021).
Troy is a Senior Relationship Manager at Standard Chartered in London and has over 35 years buy-side and sell-side experience in the finance sector, much of it concerned with emerging markets. Prior to joining Standard Chartered, he held senior positions at Credit Agricole, ANZ, where he ran Fixed Income Sales globally, and Barclays Capital. He also worked at Deutsche Bank, PaineWebber (now part of UBS), Bank of Tokyo (now part of MUFJ) and Charterhouse Investment Management Limited (now part of BNY Mellon Investment Management). Troy has a BSc in Economics from Loughborough University and MSc in Economics from London University. He is qualified at postgraduate level in Quantitative Finance, and is a member of both the CFA (UK) and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. He has co-authored a finance textbook published by Wiley, “Trading the Fixed Income, Inflation and Credit Markets”. Troy is the Treasurer and Trustee of another UK charity, Friends of Squirrels.
William is Co-Head of Systematic Strategies at Ocean Leonid Investments. William has had a 27 year career in finance, prior to which he was an academic in computer science, and holds a PhD in theoretical computer science from Sussex University.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please reach us at if you cannot find an answer to your question.
To be eligible to apply for any grant from BENE UK, the Applicant Organisations (AO) and the Applicant Individuals (AI) need to meet all of Bene UK’s below criteria. Ineligible applications will not be considered.
An AO needs to have:
· A registered charity number from the right entity in the country where they operate
· An annual income of between £10,000 and £1m
· Its own bank account
· A track record of working with disabled people of all ages or domestic violence victims
· Been delivering services for more than a year in the geographic areas where they operate
· Free reserves of less than 12 months
· A Board of at least three unrelated Trustees
· A safeguarding policy in place
An AI needs to:
· Be older than 18 years old
· Have an annual income of between £5,000 and £50,000
· Have his/her own bank account
· Have a track record of working with disabled people of all ages or domestic violence victims
· Have been delivering services for more than 2 years in the geographic areas where he/she operates
· Have a safeguarding policy in place
- Have a reference letter from his/her local Government
· Organisations that deal with domestic violence victims - of any age, of any gender, of any religion, of any social/cultural/economical background, of any ethnicity, of any race, of any sexual orientation - that focus on their protection and rehabilitation. Among this type of organisations, BENE UK will prioritise those that focus on prevention.
· Organisations that deal with special needs/disabled persons - of any age, of any gender, of any religion, of any social/cultural background, of any ethnicity of any race, of any sexual orientation - no matter if those disabilities are from birth or from the environment. Priority will be given to those organisations that focus on disabled children from unprivileged backgrounds.
Yes, donors can choose which specific programme they would like to support when making a donation.
Contact Us
Our address
124 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX
bene uk
Copyright © 2024 beneuk - All Rights Reserved.