Martin Lewis biography

Martin has a substantial charity focus in his work these days. He's set up two successful charities, and provides time and resources to a number of others. As he said in his life lessons lecture:

"I've been very fortunate to have more financial success than I could have ever dreamed of in my career – it feels almost accidental. So I accept that as with anyone's success, an element of that is due to luck.

"Once you understand that, then it feels important to acknowledge that what comes with that is a responsibility to give back. And that doesn't just mean writing a cheque, but by fully engaging in projects too, and giving them the same energy you give the day job."

Martin's donations are worked via the charity fund he set up in 2012. There are full details of all his wide-ranging charity work, including facts, figures and (for transparency) finances, in his What happened to my pledge to give £10m to charity? blog (spoiler alert – it's now £20m). But here are a few brief highlights...

• The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute: Martin is the founder and chair of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute (MMHPI). The charity, which now has 13 full-time staff, was set up in 2016 to research, lobby and innovate policies to try to break the toxic relationship between mental health issues and debt.
  
  The institute has quickly established itself as an authoritative voice: making headlines, shaping policy and ultimately changing lives. It is the go-to organisation for high-quality research into practical solutions to the toxic link between financial difficulty and mental health problems (see MMHPI's impact).

• Coronavirus Poverty Fund: In early 2020, Martin urgently set up his Coronavirus Poverty Fund, funding £3.4 million across 400+ charities.
  
  
• Financial education: Having successfully campaigned to get financial education on the English national curriculum, Martin worked with the charity Young Money to fund three years of My Money Week in most UK schools, and the UK's first financial education textbook – 365,000 copies were then distributed free to all English state schools (he's working on similar textbooks for the other UK nations).
  
  
• The MSE Charity: In 2008, Martin launched the MSE Charity. So far it has helped connect over £2 million in small grants to consumer finance and education charities.
  
  
• Grief Encounter: He is also a patron of child bereavement charity Grief Encounter (see BBC Radio 5 Live's Martin Lewis on losing his mother). Plus, since 2019, he has funded the charity's GriefTalk helpline, which gives instant counselling when children need it, which in his words "wasn't available when I needed it".
  
  
• Citizens Advice Scams Action: Martin has long had a close relationship with Citizens Advice. As well as pointing the £3 million Facebook lawsuit funds at the charity to fund a new scam action arm, he's personally donated £2 million to set up its innovation fund.