About

The Legatum Institute is a London-based think-tank with a bold vision to create a global movement of people committed to creating the pathways from poverty to prosperity and the transformation of society.

The Legatum Institute’s vision

Our vision is to create a global movement of people committed to creating the pathways from poverty to prosperity and the transformation of society.

We seek to fulfil our mission by raising up leaders of character, restoring an ethical vitality to all sectors of society, and developing the practical solutions and data tools that will help build inclusive and peaceful societies with open economies and empowered people.

Our work is focused on supporting emerging nations on the pathway from poverty to prosperity; creating the strategy and accountability tools to reduce poverty and build prosperity across the UK; and building a network of leaders of character across the public square to restore an ethical vitality to all sectors of society and lift people higher.

The Legatum Institute’s values

Everything we do is informed by our core beliefs:

• We believe everyone has potential: People of all nations and walks of life have immense personal worth, dignity, and value. They should all be given the opportunity to realise their potential.
• We believe transformation is possible: Prosperity is created by transforming lives, not by maintaining the status quo.
• We believe prevention is better than cure: Avoiding problems is the most effective way to put individuals, communities, and nations on the pathways from poverty to prosperity.
• We believe in engagement beyond government: All over the world, problems are being solved by individuals, communities, charities, and businesses.

Our role as a charity

The Legatum Institute Foundation is an independent educational charity whose objectives are:

Understanding, measuring and explaining the journey from poverty to prosperity for individuals, communities and nations.

Our events, reports, and publications aim to advance education in the fields of economic, political, and social policy. We are not party political and do not promote any particular party policies; we remain open to all ideas and policies that will help move people from poverty to prosperity.

In disseminating our work, we aim to reach the widest possible audience and we actively engage with individuals from the business community, politics, and academia, as well as the general public. Our engagements with political figures span all of the major political parties and we welcome constructive dialogue with people from all political persuasions. All policy recommendations stemming from our research are grounded in and shaped by the evidence we uncover in our research and are designed to educate the public and further our charitable objects.

Our network

The Legatum Institute is part of a global community of organisations founded and supported by the Legatum Foundation. The Legatum Foundation invests in the development of people and communities and was established with the express purpose of investing in philanthropic ventures and exploring and promoting transformational ideas. The Legatum Foundation has originated, incubated, and scaled a number of ground-breaking interventions, which include:

The Freedom Fund — which has become the largest funder of frontline organisations, and a leading advocated of a systems-based approach to ending modern slavery. Partnering with visionary investors, governments and anti-slavery organisations, the Fund tackles the systems that allow slavery to persist. By mobilising the knowledge and capital needed to end these crimes against humanity, the Freedom Fund is dedicated to building a world free of slavery.

The End Fund — which aims to control and eliminate the most prevalent neglected diseases among the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. In the Fund’s first five years, it successfully treated more than 140 million men, women, and children with over 331 million treatments, and cured conditions that are simple in treatment but devastating if untreated.

The Luminos Fund — which aims to restore hope and opportunity for millions who are out of school. The Fund is dedicated to developing and scaling innovative approaches to learning, for the most vulnerable children around the world. The Fund’s capstone initiative, the Speed School programme, equips out-of-school students with basic reading, writing and math skills, through an accelerated curriculum that compresses three years into ten months. The success of this programme, which saw over 100,000 children re-enter the education system, enabled the Legatum Foundation to launch the Luminos Fund in 2015.

The Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at MIT — which provides a community hub for students, alumni, and faculty who seek to accelerate social and economic progress through innovation-driven entrepreneurship. The Center was established by the Legatum Foundation in 2007 in order to demonstrate the power of entrepreneurship to catalyse transformation in society and to improve global wellbeing.