Peter Taylor, 44, is managing partner at Duke Street Capital, a UK-based private equity company that has been investing in the UK and France since the 1980s. He joined Duke Street in 1996 after qualifying as a chartered accountant and working for Bridgepoint and Vardon (now Cannons Group), where he was group finance director. What is the first charity you can remember supporting? It was Band Aid in 1984. I persuaded my student hall of residence to give a £50 donation to the appeal. When did you make your first substantial donation, and who to? In 2005, Save the Children ran an appeal for famine relief in Niger, after a disastrous drought. That was an impulse decision. Which cause do you feel most passionate about? I am involved with a charity in Tanzania and Kenya called The Mango Tree (www.themangotree.org). It gives financial support to children who are orphaned through Aids and helps them get an education and into work. For example, they must have a school uniform to be able to go to primary school and many children don't have that - so the charity makes sure they have everything they need. How do you motivate your employees to be interested in giving too? As a business we support the Prince's Trust and encourage our employees to give their time, money, or both. The Prince's Trust offers mentoring for young people who are starting businesses and that is very close to our day job so we are well-placed to help out. Is it more important to give time or money? It depends what you have more of. At the moment I find it easier to give money because I am working so hard but one day I hope to have a lot more time to give. How do you ensure your giving is used effectively? I went to New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), which advises on effective giving. In business, we do due diligence on companies all the time and you would not invest without doing your homework. What percentage of our income should we give to charity? I think the more money you make, the higher the proportion you should donate. Are you an impulse giver or do you only make planned donations? Now I am a planned giver but I still get loads of requests and make one-off donations to people who have worthwhile causes. There are some I won't support, though, because I think they are badly run. What do you get out of your giving? Great satisfaction, and I am starting to understand the charitable sector much better. Getting out there can be very inspiring experience - I sponsored a child in South America, where I visited the community and worked in its soup kitchen. That kind of thing makes giving real.

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