Throughout the course of his 20-year career in London, Mark Lyttleton participated in Payroll Giving schemes, recognising the importance of giving back. Nevertheless, he found himself with little spare time to research the charities he was giving to. Seeking to provide a conduit through which professionals could support causes they care about whilst ensuring that every penny pledged would have maximum impact, Mark launched Percent For Good, a charity founded with the mission of enabling donors to give regularly to a carefully curated panel of charities hand-picked for their impact on the ground.
Percent For Good helps cash-rich but time-poor professionals to support causes they care about. Mark Lyttleton’s Cause Portfolio concept has been hailed as an innovation in the giving space, paving the way for donations to be spread across a selection of charities and widening the impact of every donation.
Percent for Good’s Cause Portfolios consist of five main categories:
- Nature & Environment
- Health & Wellbeing
- Education & Arts
- Social Mobility
- Cost-of-Living Crisis
The Cost-of-Living Crisis Cause Portfolio
The UK’s inflation rate is measured by the Office for National Statistics by tracking the prices of hundreds of everyday items, including food and fuel. In March 2025, the UK inflation rate fell to 2.6% according to the BBC. This marked a significant decrease on the 11.1% recorded in October 2022, the country’s highest inflation rate for more than four decades.
Nevertheless, a drop in inflation does not equate to price reductions, merely suggesting that they are rising less quickly. Inflation skyrocketed in 2022 due to surges in demand for oil and gas following the COVID-19 pandemic, a problem compounded by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
During 2021 and 2022, the cost of living rose sharply across the UK, impacting the affordability of goods and services across the board. As part of its efforts to get the inflation rate back under control, the Bank of England increased interest rates at 14 consecutive meetings, with the base rate rising from 0.1% to 5.25% between December 2021 and August 2023.
In addition to paying more for groceries and fuel, families were also impacted by higher borrowing costs, with mortgage interest rates rising sharply from the very low rates offered previously, catching many households off guard. This led to significant hardship for many people in the UK, with one in six workers skipping meals to make ends meet, according to the TUC, and as many as one in ten skipping a meal most days. The cost of energy, groceries and other essentials remain significantly higher than they were prior to the pandemic, with 3% of individuals in the UK using a foodbank at least once in 2022, according to a House of Commons review.
The Cost-of-Living Cause Portfolio comprises a selection of high-impact charities hand-picked according to stringent criteria. Percent For Good is proud to support FoodCycle, Little Village, Hope Into Action, The Magic Breakfast and The Childhood Trust, helping to ease the financial burden for overstretched families by providing access to food, accommodation, learning support and other essentials.
The cost-of-living crisis continues to affect everyone in the UK. However, for low-income families, the challenges are even more acute. Percent for Good is committed to helping those pushed to the brink through its Cost-of-Living Crisis Cause Portfolio, which comprises five impactful, innovative charities dedicated to helping people make ends meet at a time of incredible economic hardship.
Founded to facilitate a culture of giving across the corporate sector, Percent For Good makes it easy for professionals to give to causes they care about, providing its generous supporters with the peace of mind that their donations are going to impactful, under-appreciated charities that are making a real difference on the ground.
