GTR partnerships for change

GTR partnerships for change: Making an impact in 2025

Beyond GTR’s day-to-day mission of delivering world-class independent publishing and events, we are deeply committed to supporting local charities and community initiatives that make a meaningful difference. GTR has carefully selected initiatives addressing a wide range of causes including poverty alleviation, mental health, wildlife conservation and the empowerment of women and children. Throughout 2025, GTR supported these initiatives across several of our conferences, contributing an impressive total of £20,703.45.

GTR is delighted to continue its work with international charities by supporting Shelter Them and Svatanya across a range of our conferences throughout 2026.

Charitable contributions

Our Partners:

Mary’s Meals

Mary’s Meals is a global charity providing life-changing school meals to some of the world’s poorest children. Less than £20 feeds one child a nutritious meal for an entire year in their place of education.

Ahead of the GTR Africa 2025 conference in Cape Town, a team of GTR staff alongside our generous sponsors and friends took part in the Cape Town Cycle Tour in support of Mary’s Meals. Together, they raised £17,500 — enough to provide 897 children with a nutritious daily school meal for an entire year!

GTR has proudly supported Mary’s Meals for over six years, raising a total of £66,244 to date, helping to ensure more children receive the nourishment they need to learn and thrive. View the Mary’s report to Global Trade Review 2025 for more information.

GTR’s support extends beyond funding; our standing in the trade finance industry has helped leverage several new partnership opportunities for Mary’s Meals!

The Nick Kilhams Foundation

The Nick Kilhams Foundation aims to destigmatise mental health challenges amongst the London insurance market and raise funds to provide mental health support to those struggling.

GTR were proud to welcome the Nick Kilhams Foundation as our official partner for the GTR Charity Awards Dinner 2025! Through a range of evening activities — including a game of Heads or Tails, a live auction and a separate silent auction — we raised a total of £13,606 to support this crucial cause.

Shelter Them

Shelter Them empowers vulnerable children in Rwanda by supporting their essential needs and providing access to education and resources that help children and families build independent, sustainable futures.

GTR chose Shelter Them as our official charity partner for GTR East Africa 2025, generating £2,221.15 to support this vital initiative. But our efforts didn’t start there — in 2024, we were able to raise an impressive £24,886.21 at the GTR Charity Awards Dinner! This generous contribution went directly towards the construction of a brand-new primary school in Gateko. Explore a selection of photos to see the progress of the school’s construction.

How Many Elephants

How Many Elephants are a women-led, impact-driven charity dedicated to promoting awareness of elephant conservation across Africa, while amplifying the voices and experiences of female rangers around the world.

GTR introduced How Many Elephants as our official charity partner at the GTR Africa 2025 conference in London, collecting a total donation of £1,500 in support of this incredible cause.

SVATANYA

The SVATANYA initiative is dedicated to empowering marginalised women in India by equipping them with skills to achieve financial independence, whilst also bringing joy and support to the lives of underprivileged children.

GTR has been delighted to support this charity for 3 years! At GTR India 2025, SVATANYA once again served as our official charity partner, and together we raised £1,000 in support of this impactful initiative.

Women of Wellbeing

We hosted a Women in Trade Finance conference alongside our GTR Africa 2025 event in London, which was supported by Women of Wellbeing. Together, with the incredible support of our funders, researchers, and campaigners, they are helping to drive change in women’s health.

“GTR started supporting Mary’s Meals in 2019, bringing together the trade finance sector to reflect a shared belief in the transformative power of a school meal to enable education for children in the world’s poorest communities. With thanks to partners like GTR, Mary’s Meals is now serving daily school meals to over 3 million children in 16 countries. GTR’s support went far beyond the food served; it was an investment into children and communities across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean – unlocking education, breaking the cycle of poverty, and creating brighter futures for generations to come.”

Mary’s Meals

“As one of the key influencers and aggregators of the trade finance industry, GTR uses its power to amplify the impact of growth and development through the work it does to promote charities. In 2024, GTR helped to raise over £24k which we used to start building our primary school in the village of Gateko, in Rwanda. In 2026 we will fully embrace GTR’s invitation to address its most prestigious gathering once again, with a view of raising funds to complete the project. This new primary school impacts the lives of hundreds of children, who through the gift of education will have a choice over their future.”

Shelter Them

“GTR’s generous £1,500 donation funded seven beehives in our How Many Elephants Beehive Fence Project in Tanzania. Elephants have a natural aversion to bees, and these beehives form a non-harmful barrier that helps protect crops and livelihoods by reducing human-elephant conflict, while also empowering women through sustainable income from honey production. GTR’s support is creating real, measurable impact for both people and wildlife on the conservation frontline.”

How Many Elephants

“We are so grateful to GTR and the attendees of the annual Charity Awards Dinner in 2025, who raised over £5,000 for the Nick Kilhams Foundation. We have used the funding to pay for service providers that offer emergency support to people experiencing a mental health crisis. This includes counselling, advice and clinical safe spaces for those with suicide ideation. It is critical that we fund these resources that provide life-saving support; without donations like the GTR’s, they just won’t be there.”

The Nick Kilhams Foundation

“The annual GTR global event has provided SVATANYA a prime opportunity to share it’s story and the 2025 conclave was our third consecutive outing as the exclusive GTR India sustainability partner. It has resulted in some great networking opportunities in sectors as well as geography untapped by us which is great support for a social enterprise like ours. At SVATANYA, we have always believed in conscious collaborations so thank you GTR for leading the way and not only choosing us to be a part of your journey but also for all the love and warmth that we receive from the entire GTR team!”

SVATANYA