Our charity is grounded in the Christian principles of love, faith, compassion and service. We are dedicated to supporting good works by primarily providing grants to UK registered charities that seek to bring positive change to communities and lives worldwide. As a grant-giving organisation, we understand the importance of good stewardship and transparency. We carefully evaluate all applications to ensure that the funds we distribute are used effectively and align with our mission and objectives. Our decision-making process is guided by a deep sense of responsibility to serve as faithful stewards of the resources entrusted to us.
We believe that good works come in many forms, and we are committed to supporting a diverse range of causes that align with our charitable objectives and values.
Over the years, we have been privileged to witness the transformative power of the charities we support. In the last 5 years we’ve given grants totalling £2million to over 520 different charities.
Our known history begins with a remarkable lady with deep Christian principles called Sybil May Betts (SMB) who at the outbreak of World War II was living in Clapham, London SW4. She had inherited a large property portfolio in Battersea from her father, a London coal merchant trading as A & H Betts, who had successfully contracted to supply coal to the railways for many years.
During the London blitz of 1940, much of the area was devasted and Miss Bett’s elderly uncle who had been managing the portfolio, was unable to continue due to the sheer size of the task at hand. Much of the portfolio was bomb damaged, some uninhabitable and some still let to tenants, so Miss Betts turned to her vicar of St Stephens, Clapham for help. He knew of a Mr K H Lubbock who had experience in managing a property in Battersea, and despite having experienced over 70 consecutive nights of German bombing as an Air Raid Warden, Mr Lubbock started the management of Miss Betts properties in September 1941. A long standing relationship was born, with the Lubbock family managing the SMB London properties until this day.
At some point during the next four years, Miss Betts moved to Tunbridge Wells with her lifelong maid Mabel, from where she continued to direct the management of her property portfolio. The post war years were a struggle for the management of property as there was an acute shortage of building materials to repair the damage of war. Rents were controlled by the government so there was no money to invest and there was endless discussion with the war damage commission as to what was bomb damage and what was lack of maintenance.
Those that knew Miss Betts would describe her as “a kind but formidable lady”, during her lifetime she generously gave to charities that supported her own Christian faith and her other interests. In 1962, Miss Betts’ accountant arranged for several of Miss Betts’ properties to be put in trust to protect her desire to see the charitable giving continue upon her death, and The SMB Charitable Trust was created. Miss Betts also gifted several properties to the London City Mission and during this period, Lambeth Council compulsory purchased all Miss Betts remaining properties in Robertson Street.
A further change was that whenever a property got vacant possession, it was sold and not re-let, with the proceeds invested in the stock market to provide more diverse and profitable returns.
Today, the Trust’s assets are currently split between equities and property. The bulk of the dividends and rents (minus property upkeep & fees etc.) are given away in the form of grants to other UK Registered charities with the remainder being re-invested in order to preserve the capital of the Trust in real terms.
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