The Private Equity Foundation (PEF) has raised GBP30m in cash as well as 39,000 hours of pro bono business support over the last five years allowing it to help change the lives of over 97,000 disadvantaged young people.

PEF is committed to unlocking the potential of disadvantaged young people. By helping four to 24 year olds at home, through school and into the workplace, the charity aims to transform their life chances and drive down the nearly one million young people currently not in education, employment or training (NEET).

PEF donates money and pro bono business expertise to charities — investing in their leadership, staff and infrastructure — to enable them to improve their impact on the ground and help more young people overcome poor life chances.

Shaks Ghosh (pictured), chief executive of the Private Equity Foundation, says: “Over the last five years we’ve become increasingly expert in the area of NEET young people (not in education, employment or training) and sadly, we’ve seen it change from a specialist acronym to the social issue of our time. To have supported nearly 100,000 disadvantaged children and young people is a considerable milestone but there is much more to be done. Going forward, we will double our efforts with those charities which are ready to achieve considerable scale, while still ensuring we have a strong ‘venture portfolio’ of programmes which we are preparing for growth. There has never been a more important time to invest in the next generation.”