Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
The Mission....
To improve the quality of life
for people and communities
in the UK both now
and in the future
www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk
Esmee Fairbairn Foundation is an
endowed Foundation with assets of
around £900m at current market
values.
This usually generates between £30m 40m pa for UK grant making purposes.
These are not normal times
• Asset values are depressed (from over
£1bn in early 2008)
• Earnings are reduced – to £10m in 2011
and £12m in 2012.
• Spend maintained by prudent
management of resources in the past – we
spent almost £35m in 2012 and £38.5m
this year
Main Fund
(79%)
Finance Fund
(13%)
50th Birthday
Gifts (2.5%)
Strands and
minor funds
(5.5%)
How we spent £38.5m in 2012
Main Fund - what we spent it on
Social Change
(47%)
Education and
Learning
(17%)
Arts (26%)
Environment
(9%)
The Main Fund
• Received around 3,200 applications this year.
Approx 10% gain support.
• Non programmatic – but covers 4 main areas,
Social Change, Education, Arts and Heritage
and the Environment (see website for details)
• Open
• Responsive
• Flexible
• Will take risks
Main Fund
• Average size this year - about £150k
• Purpose: 50% core revenue costs.
Remainder a mixture of project, evaluation
and other costs
• No capital grants
• Make grants UK wide – but we want to
focus on ‘cold spots’. Sandwell is one.
Two stage application process
• Submit a first stage proposal – two pages A4
plus accounts - full guidance on our website, no
deadlines
• Within about a month, first stager either declined
or you're invited to submit a more detailed,
second stage application. Applicants then have
six months to get that to us!
• Within about four months of second stage
submission, receive funding decision. If request
over £120k, can take longer.
Main fund priorities
work that:
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Addresses a significant gap in provision
Develops or strengthens good practice
Challenges convention/takes a risk
Tests out new ideas or practices
Takes an enterprising approach to
achieving its aims
• Sets out to influence policy and practice
more widely
It’s very competitive. As well as
matching those priorities were; looking
for work that:
• Is distinctive and of high quality
• Offers evidence of enterprise
• Offers some form of legacy
Assessment – what we think about
• How well is the need identified?
• Is this organisation the best one to undertake the
work?
• How important is the issue being addressed?
• Is the delivery model feasible and will it bring
about the desired change?
• Is this work really going to make a difference?
• Does the proposal match our funding priorities?
Don’t
• Talk in generalities – don’t regurgitate
Government stats, local context is far more
useful.
• Tell us a lot about the issue itself - focus instead
on how you are going to deal with it, in your area
• Write at length about the proposal’s match to
government targets and standards
• Be unrealistic, don’t over-claim
• Contrive weak match arguments to the
Foundation's funding priorities
What we don’t fund!
• Work that is common to many parts of the UK – Branch bodies
or where there are lots of organisations doing broadly the same
thing. Unless – the work proposed is distinctive, or there are other
local factors that make the proposal stand out.
• Services that are provided in similar ways in many locations.
We lack the resources to support them all and its difficult to
rationalise support for some and not others.
• General appeals or circulars
• Grants to individuals or to causes that will benefit only one person,
including student grants or bursaries
And we don’t fund…
• Recreational activities including outward bound courses and
adventure experiences and sport
• Capital costs including building work, renovations, and equipment
• Energy efficiency or waste reduction schemes such as recycling
or renewable energy schemes unless they have exceptional social
benefits
• Healthcare or related work such as medical research,
complementary medicine, hospices, counselling and therapy,
education about and treatment for drug and alcohol misuse
• Routine work to improve employability skills such as training on
CV writing, interview skills, literacy, numeracy, communication,
ESOL courses and activities to increase self confidence
• Routine information and advice work
And neither do we fund
• Work that is primarily the responsibility of central or local
government, health trusts or health authorities. This includes
residential, respite and day care, housing provision, individual
schools, nurseries and colleges or a consortium of any of these, and
vocational training
• We will not normally replace or subsidise statutory income
although we will make rare exceptions where the level of
performance has been exceptional and where the potential impact of
the work is substantial
• The independent education sector
• Animal welfare, zoos, captive breeding and animal rescue centres
• The promotion of religion
• Retrospective funding, meaning support for work that has already
taken place
• Work that is not legally charitable
• We rarely fund research.
What this means in reality
• Backing people and organisations with
great ideas that can make their case
• Contributing to a resilient civil society
• Funding the difficult stuff
• Being nimble, flexible and open
Sandwell Women’s Aid
Grant for an Alternative to
Custody programme for women
from Sandwell
EGO Performance
Criminal Justice Charity that works with serving and exprisoners, around issues of financial exclusion
Successfully campaigned for the introduction of bank
accounts for serving prisoners
Recognised that the families of serving prisoners could not
secure home or car insurance, successfully campaigned for
closure of legal loophole that allowed insurance companies
to discriminate.
Social investment – why are we
doing it?
• To increase the overall size of the funding cake
• To make our money work harder
• To contribute to market development
Example social investments
Bristol Together
Land Purchase Fund
Land Purchase Fund
Contact
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Kings Place
90 York Way
London SW1A 1LP
www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk
Telephone: 020 7812 3700
Specific Contacts
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Arts – Alison Holdom
Education – Derek Bardowell
Environment and Food – Joanna Watson
Social Change – Laurence Scott / Sharon
Shea
0207 812 3700