ABOUT US

Our Approach

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Like most foundations, we allocate a small proportion of our endowment to grant making every
year. Unlike most foundations, we also deploy our investment capital in support of our mission.
Currently around 35% is invested in impact and our goal is to reach 50% over time. While there are
obvious differences between grants and financial investments, we view them as equally important
and as far as possible we try to use a common framework for evaluating both. Sometimes, where
appropriate, we deploy both grant and investment funding to support the same partner.

Our grant strategy has evolved. We have decided to concentrate our portfolio around a smaller
number of deeper partnerships, backed by larger grants and underpinned with more robust
evaluation and monitoring. Going forward, we expect to maintain around a dozen of these strategic
partnerships, with grant sizes in the region of £50k per year or higher. We also anticipate a smaller number of
innovation grants, in the region of £20-30k per year, which allow us to support early stage projects which
don’t yet qualify as strategic partners.

Our impact investments encompass different asset classes and different organizational structures.
The two primary categories are equity investments in early stage, mission-driven companies and
debt investments, primarily but not exclusively in non-profit organisations. We generally invest at
least £50k initially and up to £250k cumulatively. We also have some property investments. Most of
our investments are direct, although on occasion we also invest in funds.

We are neither issue-led nor region-specific. Most of our partners are based in the UK, although a
growing number are in East Africa. We have been active across a number of different sectors:
violence against women, criminal justice, refugees, young people, mental health, food system,
nature recovery, plastic pollution, marine conservation – to name a few. Inevitably, we find
ourselves revisiting the places and issues we know, but we are led by our investment criteria.

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Our Investment Criteria

 

• Exceptional leadership – people with passion, energy, resilience and entrepreneurial spirit.

• Clarity of purpose – a mission and vision we understand and believe in.

• Compelling operating model – whether it’s a business or a charity, we’re looking for a solution which feels innovative, well thought through and likely to succeed.

• Well defined impact objectives with a clear strategy for delivering on them and a robust approach to measuring progress.

• Alignment with at least one of our four themes (Sustainable Planet, Vulnerable Communities, Justice, System Change).

• Potential to scale – ideally the vision entails material expansion in scope and impact of the project.

• Additionality – Treebeard support, both financial and other, should make a difference.

• Catalytic – investment funding is by nature catalytic, but even with grant funding our hope is that it serves to propel partners to the next level (where they no longer need us).

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Our Process and Approach

 

• We are risk aware but not risk averse. We support talented people with bold ideas, and we are willing to back them early.

• We identify new opportunities primarily through our networks. We discourage speculative applications as we don’t have the resources to screen them adequately.

• We conduct a rigorous initial evaluation of potential partners prior to the investment decision, while trying to avoid wasting time (ours and theirs), and we seek to minimise bureaucracy throughout the partnership.

• We value clear and consistent communication from our partners. We never ask for bespoke reports but we do like to establish upfront the key parameters by which we and our partner can monitor progress.

• We are relational not transactional. Once committed our goal is to build a partnership based on mutual trust and transparency.

• We are in it for the long term. Our equity funding is permanent by nature, our debt funding is typically five years plus and our strategic grants generally come with a three year commitment.

• As far as possible, we tailor our funding to suit our partners’ needs. Thus, for example, our grant funding is usually unrestricted.

• We like to be creative, in particular around using our balance sheet to support our partners with investment funding alongside grants, where appropriate.

• We recognise the power imbalance inherent in all funding relationships and try to act with humility. We exist to serve our partners, not the other way around.​

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