Brit gives £460 million to charity

One of the City's most controversial financiers has given almost half a billion pounds to charity in the largest single donation made by a Briton.

The hedge fund manager Chris Hohn, who runs The Children's Investment Fund (TCI), has donated £466 million to the foundation run by his wife, Jamie Cooper-Hohn, that benefits projects across Africa and the developing world.

The donation dwarfs other recent gifts. Sir Tom Hunter, the Scottish billionaire, has promised to give £1 billion to charity, but that was spread over his life time. David and Heather Stevens, the founders of the insurance company Admiral, gave away £100 million.

The Hohns have given almost £800 million in only four years, making them Britain's most generous philanthropists.

Mr Hohn, 41, who has a reputation for being aggressive and ruthless with the management of the companies he invests in, set up TCI in 2003. The fund was structured so that a percentage of the earnings go directly to its charitable arm, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF).

The couple are considered pioneers among the "new philanthropists", the super-rich who are not only giving away a large proportion of their wealth but increasingly controlling the charities too.

As president of CIFF, American-born Mrs Cooper-Hohn, 43, meticulously researches each cause to find those that will produce "transformational change" on a large scale.

She says she runs the charity using the business model of her husband's fund. She once said: "I was very eager that if we did this we would do it very much in the way Chris invests, making long-term, well-researched investments, bringing business rigour and a private-sector approach into development."

The foundation has given money to the Clinton Foundation for the treatment of HIV/Aids; to a scheme to help orphans in Malawi; and to emergency aid projects in places such as Darfur.

After the charity gave £2.9 million to HIV and Aids work conducted by Bill Clinton's foundation, the former president said that the Hohns' "marriage of business and philanthropy provides a great tool to effect serious change in the developing world".

Originally the Hohns planned to give £5 million a year to CIFF but, because of the success of TCI, donations soared each year. In 2005, the foundation gave £500 million.

Last year the cash injection leapt to £235.8 million. CIFF is now thought to be Britain's fastest growing foundation. The Hohns, who avoid publicity and about whom little is known, have four children and live in north London. Mrs Cooper-Hohn has given an exclusive interview to tomorrow's Sunday Telegraph.