Steve Morgan the founder and chairman of the housebuilder Redrow, has announced he will donate £1m per week to charity in order to fight the ‘war on coronavirus’.
The foundation is set to donate to charities across North Wales, Merseyside and Cheshire to help the most vulnerable members of the public during the COVID-19 outbreak. More than 50 charities have approached the foundation for financial help since the news of the crisis.
Mr Morgan, who founded Redrow in 1974, said:
“The £1m per week will go into a war chest because we are at war against coronavirus.
“People who know me know I don’t like the limelight but now is not the time to hide in the shadows.”
“Normal day-to-day fundraising efforts that the charities undertake have been pulled from under them,” he added.
“The London Marathon alone puts around £65m into the charitable sector.
“We’ve already had more than 50 of our supported charities approach us for desperately needed funding and we are only at the beginning of this crisis.
“One of our charities, in just one day, had 248 additional people register for their foodbank.
“As the economy shrinks it will be the charities and the vulnerable people who suffer first and we can’t allow that to happen.”
The Steve Morgan Foundation was founded in 2001, to support charities that help children and families, people with physical or learning disabilities, the elderly, or those that are socially disadvantaged in Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales.
The father-of-six made the decision despite seeing an estimated 50% wiped off his fortune in the past month by the economic crash caused by Covid-19 but said it wasn’t important compared to the humanitarian crisis the world was facing.
“I grew up in some pretty tough areas of Liverpool and changed schools nine times but worked hard, set up Redrow and got lucky. I never forgot my roots, which is why I set up the Steve Morgan Foundation in 2001 to help people who weren’t as fortunate as me.
“The Foundation has a small team, but we support hundreds of charities in our region, and it’s these charities and, more importantly, the people they help that are going to be the hardest hit by coronavirus.
“Aside from the obvious difficulties that the charities are facing, supporting thousands of disadvantaged people, this crisis has already caused substantial cashflow issues.
“At times like these, it’s right that people turn to our politicians to take the lead, but entrepreneurs like myself can help. We can’t stand idly by and do nothing.
“We wish we could help the whole of the UK but we can’t. Our Foundation is committed to helping charities in Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales and we’ll continue to do that. We urge others across the UK to follow suit.”
Charities in Merseyside, Cheshire and North Wales looking for emergency funding should email contact@stevemorganfoundation.org.uk in the first instance. To check the criteria, go to www.stevemorganfoundation.org.uk
