After what he described as his ‘eighteen-year self-appointed stint of independent reporting on trusts and foundations’, Luke FitzHerbert, delivering the 2004 Allen Lane Lecture, talked about why endowed charities so often end up failing to meet the hopes and expectations of the donors. In particular, he decried the failure of endowed UK charities set up for the relief of the poor and needy to even consider the possibility of supporting the relief of need overseas.