_The business of venture philanthropy

Charles S Cohen is an American property magnate and something of a snappy dresser. When he’s not buying up Manhattan real estate, he’s busy shopping for bespoke suits and handmade shirts. 

One of New York’s best dressed men, Cohen resembles the kind of meticulously styled, older guys you might see on Scott Schuman’s fashion blog The Sartorialist.

Around 15 years ago, Cohen’s wife suggested that he check out Richard James, the Savile Row tailor with a celebrity clientele that includes George Clooney and Elton John. Cohen was soon ordering a dozen or so suits every time he visited. 

Client and cloth cutter became close friends. Last year, Cohen took the relationship with Richard James to the next level by acquiring a majority stake in the company and kick-starting an international expansion programme. First stop: a lease on a new, 2,000 sq ft store at 465 Park Avenue – a property owned by Cohen. 

As anyone who has ever invested in the capricious business of luxury fashion retail will tell you, there are many far easier ways to make money than hawking tailored pants to leisurewear-loving Americans.

Flipping properties on a 12 million sq ft commercial real estate empire, for instance. But Cohen’s investment in the menswear business is clearly driven by heart not head (or accountant). It’s a long-term thing, a love story, a philanthropically motivated passion project; supporting a young business he genuinely believes in, securing its future for generations to come. 

But Cohen’s investment in the menswear business is clearly driven by heart not head (or accountant). It’s a long-term thing, a love story, a philanthropically motivated passion project; supporting a young business he genuinely believes in, securing its future for generations to come.

Back in 2011, a passion for protecting vintage celluloid also saw Cohen buying up the rights to 700 rare classics with the purchase of The Raymond Rohauer film library. The Quad Cinema, an art-house multiplex in Greenwich Village lovingly refurbished and reinvigorated by Cohen’s team and investment, has also recently reopened for business. 

Venture philanthropy, it seems, is the emotive, long-sighted antidote to the diminishing returns and decadence of myopic, financially motivated speculation. 

Classic car collections require vast acreages of immaculate garage space and a team of devoted specialists to keep them ticking over. A wine cellar is a self-serving, gastronomical indulgence that takes decades to mature. A walk-in wardrobe full of designer heels and handbags goes out of fashion.

Even a private gallery of contemporary art, once a sure fire way to accrue millions, is a precarious investment these days. All these extravagant luxuries have one thing in common – you can’t take them with you.

Instead, fund the dreams and talents of creative people, become a patron of the arts, sit on the board of a maverick medical laboratory or an independent educational facility and you add gravitas, meaning and a sense of generosity to your professional profile. 

The writer and journalist Toby Young, famous for his best-selling memoir How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, now combines his media career as a columnist and political commentator with a role as head of the New Schools Network – a government-funded charity to promote free schools in England.

It’s a job that requires Young, whose father Michael founded the Open University, to leave his default setting of cynical journalist at the school gate. He’s working alongside David Ross, the founder of Carphone Warehouse, who now heads up the David Ross Education Trust. ‘Part of running a successful school involves being a good manager,’ Young told The Times. ‘People who have had a lot of managerial experience should be able to bring a lot of that to bear on leading a school.’ 

Over in Mayfair, former Goldman Sachs trader turned hedge fund boss Pierre Lagrange entered the world of venture philanthropy when he bought the Savile Row outfitters Huntsman back in 2013. ‘

This business should not be owned purely by investors,’ he said, immediately betraying the idea of hedge funders as the ruthless barrow boys of the financial world.

‘It’s a bit like owning a work of art. Beauty and quality cannot be accomplished in a hurry. Building something with care will take time; you simply cannot rush it. I never wanted to invest in fashion. I wanted to invest in style. Much like in eastern philosophies where you must acquire it over the long term, it is serenity rather than simply slow movement.’ 

Venture philanthropists in the art world include Andrew Brownsword, hotelier and former owner of the Forever Friends range of greetings cards who established the Andrew Brownsword Art Foundation, buying and loaning works of art to museums. When Anthony d’Offay’s Mayfair gallery closed down in 2001, the dealer and curator bought 1,500 works by 38 artists to the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate.

Under the banner of the Artist Rooms, the pieces are on a perpetual tour of the UK. Familiar to the thousands of visitors who wander the halls of the Saatchi Gallery on the King’s Road, Charles Saatchi began collecting contemporary art as far back as 1969 but is most famous for his patronage of the Young British Artist movement (Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, et al) in the 1990s. 

Saatchi moved his operation to Chelsea in 2008, later donating both the gallery and some 200 works of art from his personal portfolio to the British public.

Then there’s venture philanthropist Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian-born industrialist, estimated to be worth $16.7bn. His Blavatnik Family Foundation has made donations to the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the British Museum.

Most recently it provided a large portion of the £260m total needed to complete Tate Modern’s Herzog & De Meuron-designed Switch House extension. 'The generosity of this gift is almost unprecedented in Tate’s history,’ said the museum’s director Nicholas Serota. The structure has since been renamed the Blavatnik Building.’