A man who has been sitting on a £100,000 inheritance from his mother for more than 10 years has given the large sum to four charities in Liverpool – and that decision was down to 12 strangers.
David Clarke, 34, who is a researcher, said he wanted to tackle inequality as he felt he had enough money to live on. He wanted to give power to his neighbours and residents in the L8 area of Liverpool to decide what to do with his lump sum of money.
Explaining the process of choosing the 12 participants, Clarke said: “I sent letters randomly to 600 addresses in the L8 postcode – 38 people responded and then I picked 12 to take part in the project.
“I then arranged four sessions of deliberation to decide what to do with the money. During the first session, everyone thought it was a scam, but when the facilitator and I explained the cause and backstory, it was fine.”
Clarke said the only condition he gave to the group of 12 was not to spend the money on themselves. Leaving the decision of what to do with your inheritance to 12 strangers is bound to create many differing views, and Clarke recalls the meetings were “lively at times”.
“There was some arguing, but ultimately everyone was caring and respectful towards each other and when they went through the voting process, the decision was signed off unanimously.”
The decision made by the 12 was to focus on tackling poverty within the L8 postcode of Liverpool, which covers areas such as Toxteth and Dingle and is one of the most deprived districts in the country.
Through collaborative effort, the group researched local organisations within the area and came up with a list of four charities they thought would make good use of the funds based on strong local reputation.
The four charities that have each received the £25,000 were the Florrie community centre, the Dingle, Granby and Toxteth Collaborative schools network, the Team Oasis children’s charity and the Granby and Toxteth Development Trust, which all work with vulnerable and economically deprived individuals of every age.
Laurence Fenlon, the business manager at the Florrie community centre, described Clarke as “extremely generous”.
“He stayed true to his word and it’s amazing, as a charity we need all the money we can get as we do a lot of free events and activities for the community.
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“The money from David has helped with hunger schemes we run for children during school holidays, providing hot meals and lunches. And every year we have 1,000 pensioners over for Christmas, so the money will certainly go towards that too and will make a lot of difference.”
Clarke has set up a website named Wealth Shared to publish the results from his project and encourage other people to share their wealth wisely. He believes his project can be an example of democratising wealth and thinks the idea should be developed together with existing institutions and centres of power.
Clarke said: “It has been an extremely rewarding process. I can think of very few things I might have done with the money that would have had such a lasting emotional impact for me or given me the same level of satisfaction.
“I’m not planning to give any more money away for the foreseeable future, but I’m happy with how the money has gone away, it went better than I could have ever imagined.”