Ed Sheeran wants to give you his money
The star's new charity aims to help musicians, and with a £300 million personal fortune at his disposal he can afford a lot of guitar lessons
When he’s not busy distancing himself from charity records, dueling with the local council about the size and purpose of his ‘pond’ or appearing in court accused of theft, there’s nothing that the young property mogul with bad habits likes doing more than founding another charity.
Sheeran first brushed with the notion of passing on some of his £300 million fortune back in 2019 when he set up the Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation with the aim of helping artists under 18 get started in the world of music.
Its website states: “The Ed Sheeran Suffolk Music Foundation is a charitable music foundation which aims to help young people under the age of 18, and living in Suffolk (UK), with small but useful grants to help with studying or playing music.
“These grants could be used for almost anything, such as buying an instrument, funding your music studies, or paying for rehearsal space. Just let the foundation know what you’d like to do when applying!”
And while the application for grants has now closed (at least for now) the site still invites visitors to sign up for its newsletter.
But now, no doubt building on this charity’s Suffolk-focussed remit, Sheeran seems to be now flinging his [broken] arms far wider. He has now set up The Ed Sheeran Foundation, a similar foundation with the similar aim of helping wannabe and upcoming musicians get into the music business.
The new charity was registered with the Charity Commission in October according to The Sun and has RCA music executive Stacey Tang and Def Jam co-president Alex Boateng on board alongside his manager Stuart Campand and business manager Will Ashurst as trustees.
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Insiders say the charity would – once more – give grants to individuals and organisations, along with advice and help for budding musicians and while a new site and application process is yet to be revealed we can imagine there’ll be more than a few takers.
We’ll keep you posted.
Daniel Griffiths is a veteran journalist who has worked on some of the biggest entertainment, tech and home brands in the world. He's interviewed countless big names, and covered countless new releases in the fields of music, videogames, movies, tech, gadgets, home improvement, self build, interiors and garden design. He’s the ex-Editor of Future Music and ex-Group Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Musician, Guitarist, Guitar World, Computer Music and more. He renovates property and writes for MusicRadar.com.