Big news over here at Verve Foundation HQ - we're officially one of the founding charity partners of the brand-new First Wealth Foundation. Cue the happy dance.
Since 2021 we've been on a mission to build the foundations of finance. Our flagship programme, New Talent (previously known as We Are Change), takes people who've never so much as glanced at a finance career and turns them into financial services professionals.
And it's working. So far we've backed 100s of students through the programme, 70% of them women, ranging from fresh-eyed 21-year-olds to a wonderfully determined 55-year-old proving it's never too late to switch things up. 26 have already bagged their full diploma, and every single graduate has landed a role in the profession.
First Wealth is a London-based, B Corp-certified financial planning firm looking after around £450 million for roughly 600 clients and their families. Founded back in 2009 by Anthony Villis and Rob Caplan in the rubble of the financial crisis, they built the firm to do wealth management differently: independent, founder-led, and genuinely bothered about client wellbeing rather than just returns.
This month they took that "doing things differently" energy and pointed it at philanthropy, launching The First Wealth Foundation - their first ever donor-advised fund, set up with The Together Foundation handling the admin and governance side of things. Every year, the Foundation will back four charities with ongoing funding and coordinated fundraising, and for 2026–2027, we're delighted to say we made the cut alongside The Global Returns Project, Grief Encounter and FoodCycle.
The whole point of the Foundation is to move away from the "write a cheque once a year and call it a day" approach. Anthony Villis, First Wealth's Managing Director and Co-Founder, has been vocal about wanting the firm's giving to be part of a genuine legacy, framing it as First Wealth setting an example for other advice firms to build more structured, sustainable charitable partnerships rather than one-off donations.
For us, that shift from "occasional donor" to "long-term partner" is exactly what a growing not-for-profit like us needs. We get a partner who's in it for the long haul - which means we can plan further ahead, open more cohorts, and reach more people who'd never otherwise have considered a career in finance.
Here's the part that made us do a double take (in the best way): First Wealth has said future plans for the Foundation include introducing a dedicated tier to support the next generation of financial planners with exam and educational support. That's about as on-brand for us as it gets, and we couldn't be more here for it.
So here's to First Wealth for turning "we should really formalise our giving" into something real, and for choosing us to be part of it. We're buzzing to be along for the ride, and we can't wait to show you what a few more fully-funded cohorts of brilliant, diverse, newly-qualified advisers can do for this industry.
Watch this space - we're only just getting started.
