It’s been an exciting start to the year for ACF. After an inspiring year-long journey, we’re proud to have launched our new fve-year strategy. To all our members and civil society partners who helped shape it, many thanks – your insights were greatly appreciated. From now until 2027, ACF will be guided by the same values but under a refreshed mission and purpose. We outline these changes and what they mean for you on page 15.
The backdrop to our strategy work, and for trust and foundations’ work in general, remains grim. Structural issues like climate change and inequalities cast a long shadow. The cost of living crisis (more on pages 4 to 7), the knockon effect of the war in Ukraine, other conficts, and a series of international disasters continue to strain many funders. They increasingly face decisions on how best to juggle funding for long-term solutions with short-term relief.
Throughout, we’ve seen that trusts and foundations continue to collaborate and learn with each other, while striving to improve their practices and effect positive change for the communities and causes
they support. I’m constantly inspired and uplifted by the work that you do, and all of us at ACF look forward to continuing to support you throughout 2023.
In this issue, Anand Shukla, CEO of The Henry Smith Charity, refects on why foundations make the best risk takers, and Rowena Estwick from Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation discusses their
wo r k to advance diversity, equity and inclusion. In a time where investment markets are more unpredictable than usual, we take a closer look at the issues impacting on foundation endowments, drawing on the expertise of ACF’s four Offcial Partners in a special feature on this important topic for the health of our sector.
At our November conference we began a conversation about courageous leadership – now it is time to harness that courage to collectively rise to the challenges of our times. I hope you fnd this issue a source of inspiration.
Lastly, we’d like to know what you think of Trust & Foundation News . We want to make sure our resources are of most use to you and that they refect the interests and concerns of our diverse membership. Over the summer, we will be reviewing Trust & Foundation News , so please do email us at acf@acf.org.uk to share your views, and look out for other opportunities to input that will follow. In the meantime, you can access this issue and previous editions online at acf.org.uk/tfn
Three organisations share their viewpoints on the cost of living crisis and where we can make the most tangible difference.
Just over one million people in Scotland – around one in fve – live in poverty. A similar proportion experience trauma, including adverse childhood experiences and multiple complex types of disadvantage. That’s the population we’re here to serve at The Robertson Trust, through our funding, support, infuencing and knowledge sharing.
Right now, what we're seeing is a deepening of disadvantage. Many individuals and families that were keeping their heads above water fnancially are being drawn into poverty. Many of those in poverty are being pulled towards destitution.
In response, we’re seeing grassroots and community organisations broadening their function, out of pure necessity. For example, one organisation we fund has been running a food bank for some time. It’s now providing school uniforms, winter coats, and help with fuel payments and other basic needs. We’re seeing warm hubs spring up, offering somewhere for children to do their homework, and maybe get their only hot meals of the week.
We’re in real danger of entrenching these services – when they should only ever be crisis responses. They should be a springboard into better income security and integrating positive mental health into our communities, rather than becoming a fourth emergency service that’s picking up the pieces of public policy and market failure.
What gives me hope is the clear intention of many of the charities we work with to move upstream and fnd ways to ensure families don't tip into crisis,
Jim McCormick, The Robertson Trustfor example, with income maximisation and debt reduction work. Some of the best community responses are the ones offering ‘under one roof’ or ‘no wrong door’ services so people aren’t moved from pillar to post to address multiple interconnected needs. That's the kind of opportunity we need to see emerge from this crisis.
One quick thing we did to address the cost of living crisis, in common with and in consultation with other trusts and foundations in Scotland, was provide a grant uplift. This was unrestricted and went automatically to all our grant holders with live awards. The total uplift for 2022-23 was around £1.6m.
The response has been sobering and motivating. Some charities told us that without the uplift they couldn’t have paid their energy bills over winter. On the positive side, other responses included a charity that was able to bring forward the launch of a new volunteer programme.
We know that this risks being a drop in the ocean – and it’s just one of many things we need to do. But feedback is telling us that, because it's timely, even this modest uplift is making a difference, especially for small- and medium-sized charities.
We’re trying to move decisively towards multi-annual and unrestricted awards. In some cases, we’re fnding charities still applying to us for project restricted funding. This is sometimes due to pressure to add our award to a restricted pot from many other funders. We need to see a shift in the funding ecosystem before our contribution is as powerful as it could be.
We’ve recently completed our frst thematic programme call on Financial
Security. We asked organisations to tell us about the big, longer term changes they want to achieve to advance fnancial security for households in poverty or at risk of poverty. We’re aiming for a cohort of partners with a commitment to a systemic shift. That might be reframing how fnancial security is understood by decision makers, the public or the media. It might be an alternative approach to the way debt advice or social security is provided. Overall, it's an invite to go above and beyond and to address the root causes of fnancial insecurity, most of which were there before this cost of living crisis and the pandemic.
The programme is also giving us a new feedback loop, providing insights so we can learn how to make systemic changes and improve the lives of families in those circumstances.
A panel of six people from outside the Trust, all with relevant lived experience, joined us as co-assessors for the Financial Security programme awards. We are just in the foothills of our work in participatory grant-making and have a long way to go to live up to our ambitions in this area.
I would describe The Robertson Trust as independent, but not neutral. We are not relying on government patronage or media consent. That puts us in a privileged position, and we have a responsibility to use our voice wisely. We’re listening to grant-holders, commissioning new research, developing and testing solutions so we can be sure of our ground. Then we will advocate for change. We cannot be neutral in the public sphere about what it takes to solve poverty and trauma.
therobertsontrust.org.uk
The Money Advice Trust helps people across the UK to tackle their debts and manage their money with confdence. We have two advice services – National Debtline for individuals and households in fnancial diffculty and Business Debtline for small business owners and people who are self-employed. We also offer training and support to other UK charities who provide free debt advice. As well as providing technical detail on key topics, such as consumer credit legislation and insolvency law, we train advisers in crucial softer skills, which includes helping people who are bereaved. We train companies too, such as banks and energy suppliers, to better support their vulnerable customers. The third area of our work is policy research and sharing our insight. Essentially, this is about improving policy and practice for people in fnancial diffculty.
We work closely with a range of partners, including some grant-giving organisations. One example is our work with Barrow Cadbury Trust on Fair By Design, which includes a programme of research and events exploring inclusive design in essential services. Fair by Design’s vision is of a UK where people on low incomes and in poverty do not pay extra for services such as energy, credit and insurance. It aims to achieve this by infuencing regulators, policymakers, and businesses. The Money Advice Trust networks play an important role in supporting this work. For example,
we were able to organise a roundtable with the Financial Conduct Authority and other regulators to discuss how inclusive design can be used to reduce the ‘poverty premium’.
As many as 45% of the people who call our National Debtline have a defcit budget – they've not got enough coming in to cover essential costs. As well as demand for our services remaining high, we’re increasingly seeing more complex cases. Three or four years ago, in the majority of situations, we could look at improving someone’s income or reducing expenditure. We’d ask: “Could you change to a cheaper energy supplier? Do you need that gym subscription?” But now, for so many callers, it’s more and more diffcult to fnd opportunities to reduce outgoings as budgets have no ‘stretch’ left. People don’t know when they're going to be in a position to pay back debt, which makes it very diffcult to move things forward.
You can’t underestimate the mental health benefts of having someone to talk to. But sadly for some of the people we help now with the cost of living crisis, our advice is more of a sticking plaster than a long-term solution. How do you sort out someone’s defcit budget when their income is unable to keep up longer term with the rising costs of their basic needs? You can’t. For these cases, there are more fundamental public policy questions for government to tackle, which we and plenty of other organisations are raising. But we know it will take a long time, and a lot of energy, to secure the kind of change we need.
If the people you support are experiencing the cost of living crisis, you can be sure that some of your colleagues are too. We all need to be thinking
creatively about how we can look after our staff and enhance wellbeing.
The Money Advice Trust is expanding after our recent success in winning major debt advice contracts from the Money and Pensions Service – an arms-length body of the Department for Work and Pensions. We're trying to ensure we can meet demand. We're also investing in technology, looking carefully at how we can use it to improve client journeys and the experience we provide to the people we help.
We have very supportive funders from a range of different organisations and have built many strong partnerships. Sometimes, our funders are partly driven by what you might call ‘enlightened self-interest’. Take the big banks, for example. We can help them support their customers in fnancial diffculty, which means their businesses run more smoothly. So, it makes sense to be investing in us. It makes sense for us to understand the situation from their perspective too.
One of the things that was brought home to me when I chaired last year’s ACF conference was that many trusts and foundations have the luxury of being able to take risks. With a large endowment you can take a long-term view and commit to supporting organisations and causes you believe in. That’s a precious thing, and something that is making such a difference across an incredible range of public policy areas.
All of us in the charity sector are facing a diffcult reality at the moment. But I am hopeful. Like we so often see in emergency situations, organisations are rolling up their sleeves, working together and forging new ways of doing things.
moneyadvicetrust.org
All of our not-for-profit clients — from small local charities to multinational foundations — have unique requirements, but they share a core set of objectives: to minimise risk, invest ethically and responsibly, and ensure oversight and governance.
Our boutique Not-for-Profit team accommodates the full spectrum of services, from standalone strategic investment advice to fully supported implementation and execution.
We develop robust frameworks to support our clients’ in-house teams, sourcing highly rated third-party managers from around the globe and identifying and accessing specialist asset classes. Most importantly, we provide ongoing monitoring and oversight.
Explore what we can do for you. Take control.
Our foundation’s founder Paul Hamlyn came to the UK as a migrant in 1933, leaving Germany to escape the Nazis. Because of his experiences, he had a particular interest in social justice and challenging prejudice. He was passionate about opening up the arts and education to everyone but particularly to young people.
Today, everything we do is underpinned by a commitment to social justice. Our main funding priorities are migration and integration; education and learning through the arts; widening access and participation in the arts; and investing in young people. And we have a nurturing ideas and people programme, which funds changemakers to develop ideas to achieve social change. We have been working in India since 1992 – the only place we fund outside of the UK –working with local organisations and communities where we can add most value.
Across all of our work we want to support organisations embedded in their communities and led by people who refect those communities. Those who know best are the ones most proximate to the issue, with lived experience of the challenges. We aim to address the power imbalances and structural inequalities that exist in funding. We look at an organisation’s principles and the way they work with their communities. If their values are aligned with ours, we have confdence that the work they do will be impactful. Of course we do our due diligence, but we try to take a trust-based approach. It means we can support those special organisations that have perhaps been around for years but haven’t had access to funding before.
For young people particularly, the social issues they’ve always faced are being exacerbated by the cost of living crisis. The organisations supporting them are facing increased demand at the same time as a massive increase in costs. It means the value of our funding has changed – with more being absorbed by operations, there’s less to support communities. It’s why it’s more important than ever to offer fexible core funding.
Organisations need security as well as some breathing space.
We contacted all our grant-holders in the autumn of 2022 to check how they were, and to reassure them that we didn't expect them to necessarily deliver what they’d originally planned. If they had challenges, we wanted to know so we could try to support them to fnd a solution. We also offered a 10% uplift to outstanding grant payments for the majority of our funded organisations. For some, even a small uplift had a signifcant impact. Interestingly, one or two returned the money so we could divert it to others in need. It just shows the generous nature people have even in challenging times.
The relationship we want to have with organisations is not a transactional one. We're here to learn with them and help make connections. For example, we organise a residential every year for around 150 organisations working in the migration space. They share insight and discuss challenges. The event creates a sense of solidarity, feld building and potential for systemic change. It’s really powerful.
An important role for us is demonstrating to others what social change and equity can look like. We gather learning and insight from our work, which we share on social media, our website and through convening partner organisations and other funders. We try to understand when it’s our time to speak on social issues and when the work speaks for itself. More and more, we want to amplify the voices of the organisations we work with.
Sometimes we need to divert our resources and let others lead. One example is our support for Baobab Foundation, which supports the work of Black and global majority communities. An amazing number of organisations are coming to Baobab Foundation for funding. It demonstrates that when people see themselves represented it can be the start of a change within our systems towards equity and racial justice.
Support for Baobab Foundation is part of our commitment to becoming an antiracist organisation. That’s our priority for the future. We’re looking at the applicant journey and our communications to see where they might be exclusionary or create barriers. We’re refecting on our internal culture and how some of our cultural norms are potentially perpetuating inequity in our funding.
As we’re part of the Funders for Race Equality Alliance, we carry out a yearly race equality audit to understand the makeup of the organisations we’re supporting, and whether they’re refective of the communities they operate in. And it’s not just about diversity. Being a diverse organisation doesn't necessarily mean that your approach is inclusive.
When you’re focused on social justice and systemic change you have to be comfortable with complexity – and embrace it. The intersections between identity, social issues and unique contexts can make it diffcult to know how best to use your resources. We need to be humble enough to accept that we don’t have all the answers, but curious enough to keep asking the questions. phf.org.uk
Here are some of the things we’ve been doing since the last issue of Trust & Foundation News
Our strategy
2023-2027
We have…
• Launched our new fve-year strategy. Our vision is diverse, vibrant and effective foundations working together for social good. Our purpose is to strengthen trusts and foundations so they can rise to the challenges of our times. Find out more on page 15.
• Welcomed the 101st signatory to the Funder Commitment on Climate Change. Thank you to the Energy Saving Trust Foundation, The Joffe Charitable Trust and Forces in Mind Trust for your recent pledges – and to all the signatories for your commitment to tackle the climate crisis. Watch out for our year 3 progress report over the summer.
• Created a new member-led network for family trusts and foundations. Meeting three times a year, the network provides an opportunity to connect with peers, explore common issues, learn and share strong practice. This means we now have 15 networks, all offering free online events to ACF members. Our thanks to all our network convenors.
• Researched Foundation Giving Trends 2022, the annual report on key facts and fgures on charitable foundations. Aimed at practitioners, policymakers and researchers, this research and analysis highlights trends in the giving, spending, income and assets of philanthropically-funded foundations. The 2022 report will be published this summer on the ACF website.
• Summarised key themes emerging from our November 2022 annual conference in a briefng called Coming together to celebrate courage. You can download the briefng at acf.org.uk/ conference where you will also fnd videos of the keynote speech and panel discussion.
• Expanded the Social Impact Investors Group (SIIG) to over 40 members and launched the SIIG member survey – the largest survey of philanthropic social investors in the UK.
• Welcomed Jessica Brown as chair of ACF’s board of trustees. Jessica is grants director at Trusthouse Charitable Foundation and previously served as our vice chair and interim chair.
• Hosted an event about the changes to the Charities Act 2022 being introduced in England and Wales. This relates to the powers to spend permanent endowments.
• Introduced two new learning events focused on the role of data, with Dr James Bowles, an Innovation Fellow at the University of Birmingham. The events looked at how to construct compelling data-driven stories and critical and creative approaches to building a ‘data culture’.
• from a medical and social perspective
NCVO published The Road Ahead – the goal is to grow their infuence 2023: The ongoing impact of cost of and impact. The new organisation will living , which examines the key trends be led by Fight for Sight CEO Keith that will affect charities this year. This Valentine and a new name will be includes adapting to political change decided after the merger. and responding to new laws and regulations, in particular annual return
• The Sylvia Adams Charitable Trust has changes and forthcoming investment closed after completing their planned guidance. spend out – they gave grants totalling
• nearly £20m over a 25-year period. Comic Relief launched a new strategy After initially supporting causes for and revealed their focus funding areas children, poverty and disability, the for the next fve years: alleviating the trust concentrated more recently consequences of poverty and its grip on preventative work for the most on people’s daily lives; tackling the disadvantaged children aged three injustices that keep people in poverty; and under in England and Wales. They and standing with those in poverty commissioned a short legacy flm to who are most harmed by climate mark its closure, covering the story change. of Sylvia Adams and six organisations
• it has supported. Watch the flm at Fight for Sight and Vision Foundation sylvia-adams.org.uk are merging from the beginning of April. Together they’ll tackle sight loss BOOK
13 JUNE 2023
5PM-6PM
The Law Family Commission on Civil • Society published their concluding report in January 2023 as the research programme came to a close. Unleashing the Power of Civil Society makes a series of recommendations about helping civil society reach its potential. The report calls on funders to improve their practice, particularly by offering longer-term, fexible funding. It also encourages the UK government to use its power to boost philanthropy, including the appointing of a philanthropy champion.
Our AGM offers an important opportunity to hear directly from our trustees and staff about ACF’s work on your behalf over the past 12 months and our plans for the future.
All members are warmly invited to attend, in person or online. We very much hope you can join us.
ACF's AGM is kindly hosted by our Offcial Partner Mercer.
Book your place at acf.org.uk/events
The Beacon Lodge Charitable Trust is an independent grantmaking charity that wants to make a real difference to the lives of children, their families and carers within Greater London.
We provide financial support in the form of grants to other registered charities which promote the care, safety and upbringing of children. For over 100 years, Beacon Lodge has worked with children and their parents who needed our support. beaconlodge.org.uk
Energy Saving Trust Foundation is the charitable arm of Energy Saving Trust and shares its mission to address the climate emergency.
Children and young people care passionately about the climate emergency. They want to take action but often don’t know where to start. This is especially true for young people experiencing inequality. Energy Saving Trust Foundation aims to i address this.
We’re funding youthled projects in the UK to empower young people experiencing inequality to take meaningful action on the climate emergency, focusing on the issues that matter most to them.
energysavingtrust.org.uk/ about-us/our-corporatesocial-responsibility/thefoundation/
In 2017 a series of tragic events led the Charity Commission for England and Wales to recommend a new approach to national emergencies. The Manchester Arena bombing, the Grenfell Tower fre, and the terror attacks in London at Westminster Bridge and
London Bridge sparked
incredible waves of public generosity, which made a huge difference to the lives of survivors and their loved ones. But there were important learnings that year too. The prevalence of individual fundraising pages made it hard to address instances of fraud. While the innovative work by the London Emergencies Trust and We Love Manchester
Build
Working in partnership with other charitable organisations, our mission is to fund grassroots projects that make a tangible and sustainable mprovement to the lives of people in need.
The charity was originally set up to enable staff at UK engineering company Halcrow to help people whose lives were devastated by the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day 2004. After Halcrow was sold, we continued as an independent charity and broadened our remit to help
Emergency Fund showed the benefts of taking a fast and coordinated approach to raising and sharing out funds for those affected.
Sector experts and emergency survivors came together to conceive the National Emergencies Trust. We are an independent charity dedicated to responding to UK disasters. The Trust was
communities around the world who are experiencing poverty and hardship.
We now focus on helping communities in selected areas of Africa, Asia and the UK. We fund projects such as building toilet blocks for schools in Zambia, where we can ensure good governance through our network of project sponsors and partners.
halcrowfoundation.org
launched by its Royal Patron, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, in November 2019.
nationalemergenciestrust. org.uk
Norfolk Community Foundation is an independent local charity that helps ordinary people do extraordinary things, supporting local communities to thrive and improving the lives of people who live in our county.
People’s Health Trust is a charity addressing health inequalities in England, Scotland and Wales. We work to ensure that where you live does not unfairly reduce the length of your life, or the quality of your health. Our work focuses on:
• Funding and support for communities experiencing the greatest disadvantage
• Using our evidence and learning to infuence change locally and nationally
• Working with our networks of funded partners to offer support, shape our programmes and policy, and ensure the voices of those most marginalised are represented. Our funding focuses on the building blocks of health –
We provide local funding and support that ensures small local charities and voluntary groups can continue and grow, providing essential care, support, and opportunity for the most vulnerable in our communities. All funds raised are invested in Norfolk to make a real difference to local lives. Led by our local
knowledge and insight, we direct support to where it is most needed.
norfolkfoundation.com
Ovingdean Hall Foundation, previously Ovingdean Hall School for Deaf Children, is a small national charity and grant-maker supporting education projects for deaf children and deaf young people. We marked our 10th anniversary in 2022.
Over the past decade, we have worked with many charities including the National Deaf Children’s Society, Doncaster Deaf Trust, Music and the Deaf, Mousetrap Theatre Projects, Panathlon and SignHealth. With the help of our supporters, we have funded new music and sensory rooms, specialist equipment, and sports and theatre experiences for deaf children and young people. We also fund scholarships for teachers training to become teachers of deaf children and young people.
through social connections, jobs and income, good quality homes and a healthy local environment. These building blocks – often called the social determinants of health – are the reasons for the differences in life expectancy and quality of health throughout the country. As well as where we are born and live, factors
such as discrimination and racism are also critical.
peopleshealthtrust.org.uk
ovingdeanhall.org.uk
A warm welcome to all our other new members who’ve recently joined us.
Rowena Estwick, director of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, co-hosted* a discussion on equitable working, power and philanthropy at the ACF conference in November. She shares some key insights from the session and her foundation’s own DEI journey.
A large part of Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation’s original endowment was gained through the profts of the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism. The legacy of colonialism has concentrated both wealth and deprivation across the world and, in part, has contributed to the social, economic and racial disparities that add to the health inequalities and inequities we see today in our London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.
As an urban health foundation, our aim is to create a healthier society for all. Therefore, it’s important to acknowledge the link between the origins of our wealth, the legacy of colonialism, racism and slavery and to understand its impact on health and healthcare today.
With this background, our conference session centered around our position as an endowed foundation focused on these diverse London boroughs in the context of health equity and the systemic inequalities that disproportionately impact people from racially minoritised and marginalised groups.
Questions on the day considered equitable engagement with communities and diversity of our partners, our history, wealth, power, and how we build trust. On refection, our ability to share learnings from our projects and hold these conversations came from the work we have started within our own foundation on increasing diversity, building equity and creating a culture of inclusion. We believe that we cannot credibly or successfully work on health inequities if our own
internal structures are inequitable. As a foundation, we need to take intentional actions on embedding values of DEI in how we operate internally – as well as who and what we fund externally. Failing to do so means we are likely to reinforce or perpetuate the inequities we’re trying to address.
Since starting our DEI journey in 2018, we’ve learnt a lot. We’ve made progress in some areas, been slow in others, and have a lot more to do. The refections shared here are not the result of a challenge-free process. They are the products of wins, losses, hard won battles, and failures. We share our refections as we think these are issues relevant to many foundations, regardless of size, progress on their own DEI journeys, or the origins of their wealth. We hope that our examples can help other organisations fnd additional routes to progress their social missions.
Our frst step was to create a common understanding of the why, what and how of DEI. For us, like many foundations, DEI is critical to the success of our mission. We’ve learnt that this common understanding needs to be owned at the top and widely understood across the organisation. Equal to this is understanding what success looks like at different points in the journey and how we get there. Actions need to be clearly communicated, visibly owned and with transparent accountability.
Essential to progressing this is:
Brave leadership. The tone must be set and led from the top and confdence, not comfort, is key. This work can be uncomfortable. The exposure that comes from doing it can be a barrier for some senior leaders. Brave, honest and curious leadership is crucial. This is bolstered through building capability, capacity and collective responsibility. Practically, this means clarity on the necessary skills and competencies required of our leaders, clear objectives for accountability and appropriate support for them on their own personal journeys.
Collective effort. In addition to visible leadership, there must be support and recognition of ‘informal’ leaders, role models and advocates across the organisation. This is a collective endeavour and everyone within the organisation plays a role, from our grant managers to our offce managers. A narrative of “it’s everyone’s responsibility” means it becomes no one’s responsibility. We’ve learnt that it’s important to build a clear understanding of the collective effort needed, supported by collective and individual accountability.
Clear and consistent communication. This cannot be underestimated. We’ve learnt that poor and/or inconsistent communication can undermine progress. Making the work visible and landing the right balance on how you lead with DEI or link to DEI is also key to ensuring that it’s embedded rather than an add-on to the ‘real work’.
Leaning into honest conversations. We’ve had to grapple with tensions and make necessary trade-offs throughout the process. Acknowledging the link between the impact of our wealth creation and our current work has made us open conversations – both internally and externally. These conversations are about how we use our wealth, our role in this space, where racism and racial justice sits within our external work and internal structures, what we can and cannot do within our charitable objects, as well as what we choose to do or not, and why. We’ve learnt that these conversations cannot be ignored or delayed and, where possible, taking a proactive approach in starting these discussions builds a strong culture with principles of radical candour. Adequate resourcing. This is a longterm investment into the health of our foundation and our ability to continue to make progress on our mission over the next 500 years. This is cultural change. It’s not linear, and it takes time, and therefore it needs resource. Our people are our most important asset and we’ve learnt that goodwill and personal commitment alone cannot drive this work. Practically, this means defning and paying for a DEI role, rather than have it as an add-on to the day job. It means acknowledging that making adjustments to embed this into everyday work will take time, therefore giving people time and space to build this into businessas-usual activities. It requires different skills and competencies, which could mean upskilling existing staff, updating
current and future job descriptions or creating new roles to lead and drive the work.
Compassion and understanding. We’ve learnt that this DEI work may be experienced differently by people within the same foundation. Applying DEI strategies and processes without understanding the context within which you’re operating, or acknowledging the human element of this work, can be a barrier to progress. We’ve learnt that underpinning our approach with the values of compassion and understanding allows people to learn that a change of direction is not seen as a failure and creates a journey that’s not defned by its mistakes. These are just a few examples from our experiences which we believe may be areas of focus relevant to many foundations. While we recognise and acknowledge that we’ve not always got everything right, we’re committed to this work. We’re now focusing on how we can build this into the organisational muscle memory, so that all changes made today will remain in place for our next 500 years and allow us to continue to serve our communities of Lambeth and Southwark.
This year, we’re revising our DEI strategy which we crafted three years ago. We aim to share more on our DEI journey and continue to adjust our work as we learn. We’ll also be looking more into our heritage and the origins of our wealth.
We think this is important to our mission of urban health equity. This will involve further research into our links to the trade in enslaved people, building our understanding of reparative justice, and what this means for us as a foundation. We’re keen to share our journey as we explore our history and would welcome working with others in this area.
At Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation our mission is clear – to build the foundations of a healthier society. For over 500 years, we’ve been a constant in London’s ever-changing landscape, at the leading edge of health. Our home in the heart of a global city is vibrant and diverse, but it is also a place with stark health inequity.
Our commitment and work are backed by our endowment, which allows us to take a long-term view while addressing the real and urgent health issues of today. We focus on backing people and ideas to drive more equitable health.
As an independent foundation, we invest, partner, engage and infuence so we can come at big health challenges from all angles. Through our family of forward-looking organisations, we collaborate with our communities, partners and hospitals, and use our assets to transform lives.
Across everything we do, we look to increase our impact by sharing and connecting with others working on better health – from our part of the city to cities around the world. Because a healthier society is our collective endeavour.
After exhibiting at the ACF annual conference in November last year and speaking with ACF members, Brendan Bradley, SmartSimple Software’s managing director for Europe, has highlighted some key elements to consider when thinking about impact and futureproofng your grants management solution investment.
While much of today’s grant management software provides robust functionality to manage the most complex grant-making requirements, effectively measuring outcomes and impact remains a challenge.
Here are some key elements to improve your outcomes and impact measurements:
• Determine the metrics needed to capture the impact you want to measure (people helped, food provided, funds distributed, etc).
• Set the targets via your programmes that you can use to measure success.
• Collect the data throughout your postaward process and progress reports. In addition to capturing the goals upfront during the application process, make sure you are also collecting the results as the project progresses.
• Make data easy to analyse and report on. Now that you have targets, and actual data, comparisons can be made and reported on. Did we reach our targets? Exceed or miss? Were our targets realistic?
Impact matters – read more about how in ACF’s Stronger Foundations Impact and Learning report at acf.org. uk/stronger-foundations
Most grant management solutions are not fexible enough to manage the specifc outcome requirements that make every grant management process unique. Their lack of fexibility comes from being fxed solutions that are designed to work in one specifc way.
The opposite is true with SmartSimple, as rather than working in one specifc way as designed, this platform allows you to confgure the system to work the way you want and follow your unique business processes.
In other solutions, details get lost because of the inability to track outcomes data from sources effectively. Ultimately, making it diffcult to quantify impact.
You need to make sure
you have a system that can meet your changing needs and grow with you. Many trusts and foundations have made the shift to confguration-based platforms like SmartSimple Cloud for Grant Management because of this.
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In our last issue, ACF’s chief executive Carol Mack shared how we listened to you on our strategic review journey. In January, we published our new fve-year strategy. Here’s what you can expect from us between now and 2027.
At this time of acute social and economic challenge, when inequalities in our society and the impact of climate crisis are increasingly evident, foundations have a vital role to play in identifying and responding to need and using their resources wisely to make the biggest difference possible. In doing this, they can contribute to a stronger and more sustainable civil society, especially when working collaboratively.
At their best, foundations are the most transparent, intentional and effcient way of transforming private wealth into public beneft. They embody the belief that things can be better; mobilising funding, resources and expertise to support people, communities, and a wide range of charitable causes.
In developing this strategy, we have listened to you, our members, to civil society organisations and the infrastructure bodies that represent them, funders more broadly and ACF’s peers. We heard that the key challenges for foundations are:
• Addressing inequalities, the cost of living crisis and the ongoing impact of the pandemic
• Responding to the climate crisis
• Diversity, equity and inclusion
• Grant-making and investment practice.
At the same time, increasingly the fourth industrial revolution (digital technology, artifcial intelligence, cyberphysical technologies, etc) is placing foundations, like other institutions, under greater
scrutiny in a context where public opinion is increasingly polarised and truth contested.
As the leading membership association for the UK’s foundations and independent grant-makers, we have focused our new strategy on how we can effect positive change with and for you.
We recognise the power that we have as a membership association of more than 440 members, who together hold one third of the assets of the charity sector and make over 40% of the grants given by UK foundations. We want to support you to collectively rise to the challenges we face. I’m excited that our strategy will provide the framework for us to do this.
Our vision, purpose and values
VISION: Diverse, vibrant, and effective foundations, working together for social good
Four objectives
Support foundations to aspire to and achieve excellent practice
Advance diversity, equity and inclusion for our sector and for ACF
Sustain a landscape where foundations can continue to thrive
Strengthen connections across and beyond the sector
PURPOSE: We strengthen trusts and foundations so they can rise to the challenges of our times
What can members expect over the next fve years?
• A diverse and inclusive thriving membership
• Value for all foundations, regardless of size, area of interest or location in the UK
• Inspiring, practical and accessible learning and support
• Practical tools and resources to enable and empower Stronger Foundations
• Vibrant communities of practice and brave spaces to share knowledge and ideas
VALUES: We care, we are open, we are evidencebased, we are ambitious
• Our website becomes the ‘go-to’ place for advice and information tailored to foundations
• Data to deepen our understanding of barriers to, and support progress towards, diversity, equity and inclusion
• Amplifed foundation voices to infuence policy and ensure a supportive legal and regulatory framework in the UK
Please do let us know your thoughts about the strategy and ways you would like to be involved. Email us at acf@acf.org.uk
We’re all too familiar with the challenges of a post-pandemic environment. However, there are ways to turn challenges into opportunities by transforming disparate data into information and insight.
Challenges we’re seeing with our clients include:
• Scarce resources after the impact of the pandemic and infation
• Variable investment returns
• Reshaping organisations to the new working / public landscape, including adapting culture and practices to a hybrid environment
• Transparency and demands on how organisations are run, with a spotlight on diversity, equity and inclusion
• Conficting demands on grants
• Access to skilled experienced data analysts and meaningful datasets.
Many organisations are adept at analysing their activity with the data they hold, but most have yet to take the opportunity to develop their data, combining it with multiple external sources to create meaningful information and insight.
Two of the key seven accepted priorities for digital transformation are:
• Unlocking your own and external data
• Maximising evolving technology.
For grant-makers, focusing on these priorities has never been more essential.
Unlocking data
Your own – You have a wealth of data ready at your fngertips, such as grantee information, fnance data and more, but do
you truly know what you have available, and more importantly, how to bring it together?
External sources – There’s an abundance of accessible, free data sources to help get a rounded insight into your impact and bring your activity to life – from the libraries of the Offce of National Statistics, to 360Giving, to the British Red Cross.
Maximising evolving technology
Before, you needed to invest in, frankly expensive, proprietary products even to get a map of your activity. With the evolution of Excel (and Power Query) and Power BI, creating meaningful historic insights and developing trend-driven future direction is now possible.
Bravery
Independence is a valuable commodity for the grant-making community – the bravery to invest in areas where others fear to tread is an enviable situation.
But with bravery comes public relations challenges, and transparency with your own and benchmarking data provides a viable response to any criticism of how and where you’re funding.
Insights are only valuable if you collect the right information from your constituents. Many organisations are reviewing their application processes to ensure that they collect the appropriate data up. For example, there has been some great collaboration on standards and taxonomy that helps shape the information collected, analysis and comparison of data. See funderscollaborativehub.org. uk/collaborations/dei-data-standard
Buzzacott can help you unlock the power of your charity s data and maximise its impact. Get in touch today for advice on understanding and benchmarking charity data: enquiries@buzzacott.co.uk buzzacott.co.uk/ understanding and benchmarking charity data
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Gail Cunningham, ACF’s head of investment learning programme, offers an overview of investment challenges and ACF members’ activities.
It has been an eventful 12 months for foundation investments. As the Covid-19 pandemic receded, the war in Ukraine, ongoing supply chain issues, infation and “Trussonomics” all played havoc with the markets.
ACF member Wellcome Trust, the UK’s largest foundation, reported a total return of 1.7% (or -5.9% after infation) for the year to 30 September 2022, and it is likely many more foundations will report a negative outturn on their investments for 2022.
This is set against a backdrop of the cost of living crisis and frontline charities having to meet increasing need, resulting in greater demand for grants and uplifts to address infation, and a tricky period for endowment management.
In May 2022, the ruling in the ButlerSloss vs Charity Commission legal case indicated that charity trustees in England and Wales can take into account ‘nonfnancial considerations’ when exercising their powers of investment. The case reiterated that trustees’ primary duty is to further the purposes of the trust. While in many cases this will be achieved by maximising fnancial returns, where there is a potential confict trustees are obliged to carry out a ‘balancing exercise’ to assess whether there is a ‘direct confict’ with the charitable purposes.
In November, Paul Latham, director of communications and policy at the Charity Commission for England and Wales, spoke to ACF’s fnance investment and resources management (FIRM) network for large foundations about the Commission’s plans to redraft the CC14 investment guidance. FIRM network members had the opportunity to engage in robust discussion at that meeting, and we will continue to keep all ACF members informed as work on updating the guidance progresses. ACF also responded to the dormant assets consultation, which you can read about at acf.org.uk/dormantassets-response
mpact investing continued to gain ttention, with ACF’s Social Impact nvestors Group (SIIG) growing to 44 embers during 2022. The SIIG runs wide range of learning sessions from nding investment opportunities and anaging a portfolio, to advancing iversity, equity and inclusion.
ACF is also working with the Impact nvesting Institute, Charities Responsible nvestment Network and Big Society apital on a new series of seminars n ‘Impact investing in the main ndowment’. During 2022 we saw more embers devote resources to impactriven or mixed-motive impact investing, ith Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation llocating £100m and Esmée Fairbairn oundation £10m.
We also saw members questioning the urpose of a perpetual endowment in the idst of a climate crisis. Polden-Puckham haritable Foundation made the decision o ‘spend down’ and devote all the esources of the foundation to its mission. hirty Percy focused their investment olicy on “building community and
ecological wealth, by making investments through economic frameworks and ownership models that share risk, distribute power and benefts, and build regenerative models at the community level”.
ACF’s offcial partnerships with Cazenove, CCLA, Mercer and Ruffer had another successful year, delivering education on endowment management for our members. Over the next eight pages of Trust & Foundation News , you’ll hear from Cazenove on how foundations can show effective stewardship of their assets, and CCLA on protecting the families of low-income workers from the cost of living crisis. Mercer shares its views on adapting to the new economic conditions, and Ruffer debates whether optimism could prove dangerous for charity portfolios.
ACF’s investment seminars (run with our Offcial Partners and free for ACF members) empower senior staff and trustees to realise the full potential of their endowment. They cover the role of mission and values, deciding what to spend, and investment fundamentals –from asset allocation to understanding costs. The next round of investment seminars are on Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 June 2023 and will be held in person. The seminars are suitable for those new to investment and those well-versed in investment who are new to the foundation context. The comprehensive overview provided is more vital than ever as foundation staff and trustees navigate ongoing economic headwinds.
For more information on any of ACF’s investment activities, contact acf@acf.org.uk
In 1974, James Tobin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics wrote: “The trustees of an endowed institution are the guardians of the future against the claims of the present.” This has formed the basis of many endowment and foundation investment policies – targeting a level of spending that can co-exist alongside a perpetual timeframe (often described as investment return = spending + inflation).
Although this is a useful starting point, at Cazenove we have long argued that the concept of ‘guarding’ assets doesn’t reflect the new ways that foundations can choose to use investments both to generate returns and to further their aims through sustainable investment approaches. We prefer to think of trustees and investment committees as ‘stewards’ of the foundation’s assets.
The triple crises of climate, biodiversity loss and inequality introduce a new imperative for purpose-led investors –alongside generating strong financial returns for the future, how do we help shift towards a sustainable and fair economic system? And is it possible to have both: strong returns and invest in companies that deliver positive impact? We asked Willem Schramade, head of sustainability client advisory at Cazenove, for his views.
“There is no such thing as a free lunch.” “You can’t have your cake and eat it.”
Many languages have expressions that say that where there are benefits, there tend to be costs. This kind of scepticism is applied to sustainable investing as well.
The perennial client question is: does sustainable investing cost returns?
The short answer is no. Academic evidence (see for example the metastudies by Friede et al. [2015] and Atz et al. [2022]) shows that sustainable investing typically does not cost financial returns. But that doesn’t take away client concerns. And the more nuanced answer is: it depends. Yes, sustainable investment approaches can enhance risk-return profiles, by means of better risk management, better fundamental analysis, and/or more favourable factor exposures. But they can also hurt risk-return profiles due to excessive investment universe reductions. It very much depends on the goals and methods used.
There is much talk about sustainable investing methods (exclusions, environmental, social and governance (ESG) integrated, social investment, etc) and the data used, and indeed there is much to be discussed there. But it would be a shame to skip the goals. As the Roman philosopher and statesman Lucius Seneca is quoted as saying: “If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favourable.” In sustainable investing too, you need to know where you’re going to actually get there.
There are typically two types of goals in sustainable investing:
1. Sustainability as a means for achieving financial results (this is what most ESG integration is about)
2. Sustainability as a goal in itself: achieving better social and environmental outcomes, where clients may set very specific desired outcomes.
Increasingly, foundations want to be ambitious in both. The relation between these two goals is not straightforward – in
some cases they reinforce each other, in other cases they involve trade-offs.
Let’s start with the first goal: improving financial results. At its most superficial, this is about avoiding risk. In its most ambitious shape, the goal is achieving a better understanding and management of risk, opportunities, and returns, in a way that combines data and fundamental forward-looking analysis. This can indeed improve risk-return profiles and is the approach we take at Cazenove.
The second dimension, sustainability as a goal in itself, also comes with varying ambition levels and is a decision for each foundation trustee board or investment committee. Most charities have some sort of investment policy to link their mission to their investment objectives, with the majority starting with excluding companies that contradict with their aims. In addition, many foundations are now aiming to select their investments for doing good, formulating positive selection criteria. The obvious way is to make investments that demonstrably make a positive impact. The less straightforward way is to invest in companies that have a negative contribution to social or environmental value, but with the commitment to strongly improve their contribution through active engagement.
The perceived trade-off between sustainably-run companies and the returns they deliver is misplaced. It is hard to see how returns can be generated without considering sustainability against the backdrop of the ongoing climate crisis clearly creating risks, opportunities and political and social interventions.
This highlights the importance of analysis and our evolving models. They are part of our effort to understand the risk-return implications of sustainable
investing, especially where the data is fuzzy – while still applying a solid portfolio construction process. That is not a trivial pursuit. In that sense, there is indeed no free lunch.
Of course, foundations can show effective stewardship of their assets not just through what they invest in, but also how they act as owners. Foundations have the opportunity to be ‘active owners’ – to use their position as investors to influence companies and to drive positive change. Evidence suggests this can contribute to both financial and impact goals. Most foundations outsource this to their investment managers, so we asked our head of active ownership, Kim Lewis, to lift the lid on what it means in practice.
Why is active ownership so important?
Approached thoughtfully and with focus, we believe that active ownership can strengthen the long-term value of our investments and, at the same time, accelerate positive change towards a fairer and more sustainable global economy – which firmly aligns with the mission of many of our clients. We see it as crucial to delivering value to all stakeholders.
What do we mean by active ownership?
We’re really talking about three things –dialogue, engagement and voting.
1. Dialogue: These are fact-finding interactions where we’re getting to know the companies. Often, they’re led by the research teams or individual fund managers.
2. Engagement: This is where we aim to specifically influence change. It is
important that we can articulate to clients the impact our engagement has had on companies and wider society, so we focus on setting robust SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) objectives.
3. Voting: Equity investments give shareholders a vote and we vote on behalf of many of our clients. The right to vote can be a ‘sweet carrot’ or a ‘strong stick’ and we use it strategically, tactically and pragmatically to drive the change we would like to see.
From climate change to modern slavery to auditing scandals, corporate sustainability issues are very broad. How do we decide what to engage on?
We have identified six broad themes for our active ownership activity: climate change, human rights, diversity and inclusion, natural capital and biodiversity, human capital management and corporate governance. Our regular client sustainability forums allow us to understand what our clients care most about. Last September, we heard that their priority theme for investment remains climate change, with inclusion and health and wellbeing also important focus areas.
Our investors know their companies. They have a relationship with the management team and usually speak to them regularly. They’re often in the best position to influence change. Where we have engaged frequently and don’t see the required progress, we will generally
escalate. This could mean voting against management or even divestment.
Amazon is a good example. Having engaged with the company for a number of years to improve the frm’s workers’ rights, we were not satisfed with the level of change. We escalated, predeclaring that we would vote in support of three shareholder resolutions at the AGM on the issue.
ShareAction's Voting Matters 2022 report examines how 68 of the world’s largest asset managers voted across 252 ESG resolutions in the 2022 AGM season. This report extends this analysis to a sub-set of 10 of the asset managers most frequently used by UK charities and foundations.
The opinions contained herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the house view. This document is intended to be for information purposes only. The material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. The material is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, accounting, legal or tax advice, or investment recommendations. Information herein is believed to be reliable but Cazenove Capital does not warrant its completeness or accuracy. No responsibility can be accepted for errors of fact or opinion. This does not exclude or restrict any duty or liability that Cazenove Capital has to its customers under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (as amended from time to time) or any other regulatory system. Cazenove Capital is part of the Schroder Group and a trading name of Schroder & Co. Registered Office at 1 London Wall Place, London EC2Y 5AU. Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. For your security, communications may be taped and monitored.
“All that is, is for the best. If there is a volcano at Lisbon it cannot be elsewhere. It is impossible that things should be other than they are; for everything is right.”
So said Dr Pangloss, the tutor of Candide, the eponymous protagonist of Voltaire’s 1759 novel. Throughout the book, Pangloss constructs elaborate but patently fawed arguments to justify his optimistic philosophy. In this case, he is attempting to fnd the silver lining in the Lisbon earthquake, one of the most devastating natural catastrophes of the 18th century. Because there was chaos in one place, there would be order in another.
Investing in the stock market requires an underlying optimism, a faith – which we share – that companies will grow, be more proftable and deliver a return to shareholders.
After a dismal 2022 for almost all assets, investors are casting around for reasons to be cheerful. And there have recently been some positive signs, notably evidence that infation may be peaking and hopes that US interest rates will too. But is this optimism justifed? Indeed, could a base level of optimism prove dangerous for charities and their portfolios amidst the challenges of this new market regime?
To understand investors’ new-found bullishness, we must revisit the annus horribilis that was 2022.
Apart from the US dollar, there was nowhere to hide. The volcano was not just in Lisbon, as Pangloss might have observed; eruptions were everywhere. It was a particularly terrible 12 months for acronyms – FTX, SBF, LDI, NFTs, UK PM, ARKK and HODL all had notably bad years.
Another shorthand, the 60:40, had its worst year in almost a century –falling 18%.
As the ‘everything bubble’ burst, diversifcation died, with stocks and bonds falling together for three consecutive quarters. Stocks, bonds, property, private equity and venture capital were all revealed as one large trade based on low interest rates and easy money.
So why have markets rallied so far in 2023?
Like Pangloss, investors now appear to be relying on faulty logic. In our view, markets believe several contradictory things at once. They want to have the cake of stronger growth, while also eating the cake of interest rate cuts later this year.
Crucially, as this chart shows, investors don’t believe what the Federal Reserve (Fed) keeps telling them: that rates will stay high to combat infation. We think the chart represents the defning question for 2023. Who will be right – the Fed or
markets? It can’t be both. Fed chair Jerome Powell and his colleagues are desperate to restore some of the credibility lost when infation turned out not to be transitory in 2022. They have repeatedly emphasised the need to avoid the mistakes of the 1970s and not loosen policy too quickly. So, if a recession is avoided, how quickly can the Fed realistically reverse course?
Stock markets are now assuming an almost impossible trinity of events: better growth and no recession; rapidly falling infation; and interest rate cuts by the end of the year. But you can’t have further corporate earnings strength and infation coming back down to 2%. You can’t have a boom from China reopening and low energy prices. And, most obviously, you can’t have an economic soft landing and a big Fed pivot to looser policy.
Can it? Investors are geed up by infation appearing to have peaked. But the major risks to asset markets haven’t magically vanished, and we think underestimating
infation volatility poses the greatest risk to charity portfolios.
For 40 years the world enjoyed an economic order where globalisation brought us cheap goods, cheap energy, cheap labour and cheap capital. Cheap goods from China’s mercantilist policies. Cheap energy from OPEC and Russia. Cheap labour as globalisation brought two billion people into the global workforce and held down developed world wages. Combined, these three forces kept infation low and geopolitics stable. That meant interest rates and risk premiums could also be low, resulting in cheap capital. For multi-national corporations and for asset prices, this provided a steady tailwind which came to be taken for granted.
In the last decade, infation not only averaged around its 2% target but also stayed in a remarkably narrow range. For the coming decade, however, we expect infation to average 3% or 4% and to be much more volatile. We won’t just have an infation problem; crucially, we will have an infation uncertainty problem.
Why do we believe infation will be so volatile? There is a new world order marked by great powers in geostrategic competition and the primacy of stakeholders over shareholders. The US is engaged in three wars simultaneously: a cold war against China; a hot war against Russia; and an energy war against OPEC.
This splintering backdrop is what we think gives birth to the age of infation volatility. The diagram below shows the journey we are on. The ultimate destination is higher infation.
And last year showed how challenging high infation can be for assets. As higher interest rates shocked assets into a move lower, no one investment allocation suffced. Success followed from a series of short-term positions, regularly reversed.
Unfortunately, a regime of infation volatility is even harder to navigate. Crucially, the old ways may no longer be the best.
It would be tempting to simply invest for the infationary endgame. But infation volatility could be with us for some time. And, when infation is on a downswing, a portfolio positioned solely for infation risks major malfunctions.
To survive the turbulence of infation volatility, investors will need a hedged portfolio. And not just any hedge – a topiary. Portfolios will need to be intricately constructed – active, for sure, as no static portfolio will survive. These hedges will be crucial to protect portfolios but are likely to be expensive.
In addition, a portfolio positioned for resilience, rather than optimisation, will sometimes need to have a weighty cash balance. Cash is an uncomfortable asset to hold in an infationary world, but we see it as essential to pick off opportunities as they emerge amidst the volatility.
Most investors build portfolios based on what they think will go right. This is a perfectly valid investment approach – and, for the past few decades, has been a successful one.
But Ruffer’s approach is the obverse. Our portfolio is constructed frst and foremost to defend against the risks we see and thus aims to preserve capital.
When bad things happen in markets, the succour for investors is the hope that things will get better. That is the default of human intuition. Even that perennial pessimist, Winnie the Pooh’s pal Eeyore, was occasionally unable to resist its lure: “The nicest thing about the rain is that it always stops. Eventually.”
In an era of infation volatility, the danger is that things can seem to be getting better – but don’t. The rain may appear to pause. But investors who put away their umbrellas do so at their peril.
The views expressed in this article are not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any investment or fnancial instrument, including interests in any of Ruffer’s funds. The information contained in the article is fact based and does not constitute investment research, investment advice or a personal recommendation, and should not be used as the basis for any investment decision. References to specifc securities are included for the purposes of illustration only and should not be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell these securities. This article does not take account of any potential investor’s investment objectives, particular needs or fnancial situation. This article refects Ruffer’s opinions at the date of publication only, the opinions are subject to change without notice and Ruffer shall bear no responsibility for the opinions offered.
Ruffer LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority © Ruffer LLP 2023. 80 Victoria Street, London SW1E 5JL ruffer.co.uk
2022 presented a combination of interconnected challenges for investors, from geopolitical conficts to high infation, supply chain problems to fnancial market volatility. As we entered 2023 these challenges remained, albeit infation began to fall and supply chains in some parts started to ease.
Infation in some developed economies has exceeded 10%. At the same time, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shaken equity markets further. Economic sanctions as well as energy and food supply issues have exacerbated investor concerns about infation, particularly in Europe. Combined with a risk-off approach, global indexes fell by as much as 25% during 2022.
According to Mercer’s survey of endowments and foundations, our Global Not-For-Proft survey, conducted early in 2022, half of respondents cited higher infation as one of their two main investment challenges for the next three years. This was second only to concerns about low expected investment returns. In addition, 39% said they were not sure or did not believe that their portfolios were prepared for a market downturn.
The path ahead over the coming months and years is unpredictable, and it is best to explore different scenarios and how they may affect your portfolio, its liquidity, and the ability of your investments to support your organisation’s mission and objectives.
Infation across all 38 countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranged between 0% and 3% in the decade
ending 2020. By June 2022, this average had risen to 10.3%. As infation rises, so do central bank interest rates and bond yields, meaning debt-servicing costs for borrowers – such as governments, households, and corporations – are rising. This has led to a decline in bond prices concurrent with public equities, which are facing their own pressures. Except for private markets (subject to pricing lags), commodities and absolute return strategies, most asset classes experienced signifcant negative returns during 2022.
Were infation to remain high for several years, it could pose considerable challenges to endowments and foundations. Not only would it be diffcult to achieve a real return that meets or exceeds annual spending policies and expenses, but it would decrease the odds of maintaining purchasing power (at least in the short term).
These circumstances bring challenges for investors, but they also bring opportunities – and it is important to identify both to mitigate the frst and seize the second.
Diversifcation is important for all institutional investors. According to our 2022 Global Not-For-Proft Survey, 61% plan to add to private equity holdings and 53% are targeting real assets such as real estate and infrastructure, which can exhibit infation protection qualities.
Ultra-low interest rates, which started in the wake of the 2007-09 fnancial crisis and were exacerbated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, led many investors to diversify away from investment-grade bonds to other, often riskier, asset classes.
Higher yields today are presenting opportunities in fxed income.
Endowments and foundations should reassess their asset allocation to ensure that it remains appropriate in light of higher fxed income yields. It is also worth reviewing the composition of fxed-income portfolios. Additionally, consideration of other strategies that are helpful in high-infation periods, such as natural resource equities and index-linked bonds might be warranted.
Market volatility and poor returns in 2022 have prompted many investment committees and boards to review whether they are getting the best fnancial outcomes from their environmental, social and governance (ESG) related holdings.
Investment beliefs (and their rationale) are the cornerstones of many endowments and foundations and are in place in order to meld an institution’s mission with that of its portfolios. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents to our 2022 Global Not-For-Proft Survey said they adopted ESG beliefs to align their investments with their organisation’s objectives. Further, we believe this period of turmoil presents a real opportunity for endowments and foundations to refne their approaches and focus on data- and evidence-led investments.
Climate change remains one of the most pressing long-term issues facing our planet. Supporting the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change will primarily involve the transition to a low-carbon economy. Endowments and foundations are perfectly positioned to support and beneft from emerging clean energy investment opportunities;
however due diligence remains an important part of the process.
Investing in the energy transition is a two-way street. Climate change will have a profound impact on your investment portfolio – but your investment portfolio can also have an impact on the path that climate change will take through investing positively in the transition.
More than half (56%) of survey respondents identifed climate change as one of their biggest investment opportunities over the next three years, second to diversifying away from traditional asset classes. Nearly threequarters (72%) planned to increase or signifcantly increase their ESG-related investments over the coming 12 months.
A sustainable investment approach may help preserve long-term capital and align your investments with your philanthropic mission.
We are recommending to our clients that they engage with their investment
encourage our clients to capture longterm opportunities through allocating to energy transition assets in private markets.
We believe there is currently a window of opportunity for endowments and foundations to invest in capacityconstrained, high-conviction private market managers. Measuring your time horizons in years, and even decades, with limited liquidity requirements, means you can step into the gap that we expect to be left by other investors, such as defnedbeneft pension funds.
Many investors will have a set limit on how much they can allocate to private markets as a percentage of their portfolios. For institutional investors such as pension funds, recent asset price movements may mean they are up
much greater liquidity needs than endowments and foundations and an overarching goal to de-risk portfolios.
This could present opportunities for endowments and foundations that have the willingness and capacity to step in as a provider of capital. Private market managers still need capital to deploy to new investments, especially when markets are in a state of dislocation.
With infation top of mind for most investors, private markets can also offer a diverse range of assets to protect against rising prices. Infrastructure and real estate often have revenues tied to infation, while foating-rate private debt can serve as a long-term infation hedge – and also help to mitigate the impact of public market volatility on your broader portfolio.
Our 2022 Global Not-For-Proft Survey found that two-thirds (65%) of organisations see diversifcation away from traditional liquid asset classes as their greatest opportunity over the next three years.
Private markets offer investors access to a vast universe of alternative assets, as well as areas of the economy not usually accessible through public markets, such as ESG focused investments. With the right approach, endowments and foundations can also access investments that align with their philanthropic goals, with the potential to make a real-world impact and a fnancial return.
With demand from pension scheme clients potentially falling for new private market investments following their (pension scheme) overall decline in asset values in 2022, this potentially makes access to the best private market managers a little easier for other investors in 2023.
We are recommending our clients review their private market allocations to ensure the liquidity position remains appropriate and explore whether they could afford to lock more capital away to take advantage of the illiquidity premium. We are also encouraging clients to explore investments which align with their objectives and to explore diversifcation through private market assets which may not already feature in their wider portfolios.
The market environment of 2022 was undoubtedly a challenging one to navigate and challenges remain in 2023. However, this also presents opportunities especially for long-term investors such as endowments and foundations.
As infation bites, charities have been overwhelmed with demand from working families who cannot afford the soaring cost of food and heating. Charity asset manager CCLA is spearheading an investor coalition pushing large employers to boost wages for low-income employees. Dr Martin Buttle, CCLA’s Better Work lead, tells us more about the initiative.
The cost of living crisis is affecting millions of people across the UK. As the charity sector knows only too well, the highest rate of infation in decades means huge diffculty for working families who are struggling to put food on the table and heat the house.
The not-for-proft sector is pulling out the stops to protect some of our most vulnerable people, many of whom are themselves key workers in the public and private sector. There is huge demand for services provided by willing hands at food and warm banks, as well as free fnancial and advisory services.
But the system is creaking. There are 4.8 million workers whose wages are currently below the cost of living, and that fgure is set to rise to 5.1 million this year, equivalent to one in fve of all jobs.1
At this crucial time, the business and fnance sector needs to step up. As the UK’s largest investment management company for the third sector, CCLA’s main endeavour is to provide charities with steady funding for their mission. But over and above that role, it is clear we can do more to support those who deal with families facing hardship in our communities every day by acting as a catalyst for change.
For that reason, we decided to rally like-minded asset managers and institutions to help. Collectively, we are urging the blue-chip companies in which we invest – the UK’s largest employers –to shield their lowest paid workers from the cost of living crisis.
“The idea that there are employed people who do not earn enough to support themselves, to eat healthily and have a safe and warm environment in which to live, is morally wrong and fnancially unsustainable,” said CCLA’s
chief executive Peter Hugh Smith back in September 2022, when we launched a special cost of living initiative. “Millions of working people are facing a very hard winter and UK businesses should be vigilant in ensuring that their lowest paid are protected through the winter months.”
The crisis has health and economic impacts which will be felt for years to come. As a responsible investor, we feel duty bound to engage companies on pay and work standards in the UK and around the world. This is part of our Better Work engagement strategy.
As payroll providers for lower income families, UK businesses are pivotal in this poverty crunch. We decided to push to infuence the remuneration decisions at the 100 largest publicly listed employers.
In September, CCLA and the Church Investors Group wrote to those frms –FTSE companies, broadly speaking – to ask them what they were doing to ensure their lowest paid workers are protected.
We told them we would vote against the chair of any remuneration committee that was not an accredited Living Wage employer in the upcoming 2023 AGM season. As one relatively small investment management frm, we knew we could not infuence big business by acting alone. But we could use our unique role as a catalyst, as we do on pressing issues, to rally others in the investment sector who were also likely to be concerned.
In October, we coordinated a public investor statement on the cost of living, signed by 17 investors with collective assets under management and advisory of £3.2 trillion. 2 They included mainstream
asset management frms, such as Aviva and Legal & General Investment Management and some charitable foundations, such as the Jesuits in Britain, demonstrating the breadth of fnance sector frms worried about the spread of poverty.
Across the UK, those who earn little are stretched to breaking point. Low wage households spend a larger proportion of their income on energy and food, which means higher prices hit them harder. In January 2022 there were already an estimated 4.8 million workers whose wages were below the cost of living, according to the Living Wage Foundation. Of these, 42% said they were regularly missing meals for fnancial reasons and more than half used food banks regularly. 3
Since that report, living costs continue to spiral. Many families face bleak choices such as whether to ‘heat or eat’.
While wholesale energy prices are now beginning to fall, they are set to rise again in the near future as a price cap disappears. And there are signs of longerterm damage, such as a huge mental health impact, already estimated to cost the UK private sector between £53bn and £56bn in 2020-21. 4
The government has a primary role in protecting people and has responded with £58bn in household cost of living support in 2022-23. But this has not prevented a 3% real-term decrease in median household incomes. With real-term typical household incomes not returning to pre-pandemic levels (2019-20) until 2027-28, recovery is set to be slow. 5 More must be done to redress in-work poverty by those with the power to do so: employers.
Of the 100 companies we wrote to, we received 60 responses across multiple sectors representing 3.5 million people employed in total with a combined market capitalisation of £1.4 trillion.
One-quarter of those frms confrmed they are accredited Living Wage employers, with six more saying they use the Living Wage as a benchmark but are not accredited.
Beyond that, responses in general were vague or weak, with a lack of specifcs on what, if any, pay rises have been offered to staff, whether or not they are annual revisions or special measures, or what other fnancial support is available. Some companies stated they had provided their employees with an uplift in pay, but it was not clear whether this was in response to the crisis or part of an annual pay review.
To cite some good news, NatWest Group decided to make a permanent 4% (average £1,000) annual increase to wages for those earning under £32,000. But in at least one other instance, one
company’s level of pay for its low-paid workers still remained below the Living Wage even after a signifcant hike. Banks seemed to be providing the broadest response, with HSBC providing oneoff bonuses to 17,000 staff and Lloyds Banking Group providing bonuses to 63,000 staff.
Largely speaking, however, the response has been disappointing. “The overall percentage of those that have indicated they are providing extra measures of support for their own low-paid employees is astonishingly low (28%),” said Peter Hugh Smith. “We really have to ask the question: Why aren’t they doing more?”
Consequently, we are now pursuing more concerted and generalised measures from our investee companies. Mindful that sometimes such engagement takes more persistence, we wrote again to the largest 100 companies in March 2023 to ask for an update and to monitor progress.
We will also be refecting on the lessons learnt in our voting during
proxy season and may vote against the election of the chair of the renumeration committee in businesses whose response has been insuffcient.
CCLA Investment Management Limited is authorised and regulated by The Financial Conduct Authority.
1 Living Wage Foundation forecast
2 ACTIAM, Aviva Investors, Brunel Pension Partnership, Castlefeld, Cardano Group, CCLA Investment Management, Edentree Investment Management, Federated Hermes, Friends Provident Foundation, Islington Pension Fund, Jesuits in Britain, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Legal and General Investment Management, PensionBee, PIRC, Strathclyde Pension Fund and Trust for London
3 Living Wage Foundation ‘Life on Low Pay’ livingwage.org.uk/life-low-pay-2022
4 Deloitte (2022) Mental Health and Employers available at: Poor mental health costs UK employers up to £56 billion a year | Deloitte UK – www2. deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/ poor-mental-health-costs-uk-employers-up-topound-56-billion-a-year.html
5 Resolution Foundation Living-Standards Outlook 2023 resolutionfoundation.org/app/uploads/2023/01/ Living-Standards-Outlook-2023.pdf
Our events and networks are here to support people working in trusts and foundations across the UK. There are learning events and activities to appeal to every member of your team, including new or junior colleagues, senior leaders and trustees. Find out more at acf.org.uk/events and log in to subscribe to our monthly Events bulletin.
Our learning events are specifcally designed for foundations and grant-making charities. These events create a space for peer discussion, connection with sector experts and learning from leading practitioners in the feld.
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Following the publication of Investment: The Pillars of Stronger Foundation Practice in 2020, the seminars also provide a basic introduction to implementing the behaviours from the report.
This series of events run by SIIG are for foundations interested in social impact
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to hear more in the coming months.
If you'd like to get involved, please contact the project team at acf@acf.org.uk to share your views.
Our AGM offers an important opportunity to hear directly from our trustees and staff about ACF’s work on behalf of our members over the past 12 months, as well as our plans for the future. This year, our AGM will be on Tuesday 13 June, 5pm-6pm, kindly hosted by Mercer. Book to attend in person or online at acf.org.uk/events
ACF’s Foundation Giving Trends report presents annual research and analysis on trends in the giving, spending, income and assets of the largest philanthropically funded foundations in the UK. This July, ACF is offering an opportunity for colleagues from the sector to come together to fnd out what the report’s fndings might mean for foundations, and to hear from an expert panel. Watch out for booking details in Funders’ News and on our website.
Our exclusive annual reception brings together
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The Members’ Policy Forum creates opportunities to engage directly with policy work and policymakers by convening events around issues of interest to your foundation and the communities or causes you support.
to the FCCC recognise that the growing climate emergency is a serious risk to the pursuit of our charitable aims. As part of the Commitment, ACF hosts a number of FCCC events to discuss progress, hear from experts in the feld and connect with fellow funders.
For more information about any of these events, please visit acf.org.uk or email acf@acf.org.uk
The COIF Charities Deposit Fund’s current yield is 3.74% (AEY), with an extra 0.10% for balances over £15 million.
For the latest yields, visit
ccla.co.uk
eturns are not guaranteed and are subject to change. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future sults. The value of investments and the income derived from them may fall as well as rise. Capital is at risk and ou may get back less than you invest. Data as at 6 March 2023. The annual equivalent yield (AEY) shows what ould be distributed if the current daily yield was compounded over a year. Under Money Market Fund Regulation, e COIF Charities Deposit Fund is categorised as a short-term Low Volatility Net Asset Value (LVNAV) Money arket Fund. A deposit in the fund is not the same as making a deposit with a bank or other deposit taking body nd is not guaranteed. Although it is intended to maintain a constant net asset value, there can be no assurance at it will be maintained. The COIF Charities Deposit Fund does not rely on external support for guaranteeing the uidity of the fund or stabilising the net asset value. Issued by CCLA Investment Management Limited, authorised nd regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
I grew up in the West Midlands in the 1980s in a largely white working class area. It was a politically charged time. It saw huge economic dislocation that negatively affected local communities such as my own, the effects of which are still very apparent today. I became interested in social justice issues from a very early age as a direct result of this experience. By the time I went to university, I knew I would dedicate myself to the social impact sector. But I wanted experience in the private sector frst, and for a few years after university, I worked in new product and business development in the publishing industry.
Private sector experience has helped shape my leadership approach particularly when it comes to developing entrepreneurial and sustainable approaches. One of my roles involved identifying content gaps and creating new magazines and websites to meet the needs of business professionals. Identifying opportunities, solving problems and creating solutions has resonated throughout my career.
I’ve found mentoring to be one of the most valuable forms of development support. People who ve ‘been there and done that’ are particularly helpful when you re thinking about the challenges of a new situation. One of my previous roles was heading up a mentoring organisation called Brightside. It connects volunteer mentors, from all professions, with 16 24 year olds who wouldn t have the chance to meet people with this knowledge and experience otherwise. It makes a huge difference to young people to have someone help them make informed decisions about their future.
Anand Shukla, CEO of The Henry Smith Charity, spoke to Sarah Myers about the mutual aid mindset, mentoring, and why foundations make the best risk takers.
I had experience of The Henry Smith Charity from the other side of the funding line. When I was interim chief executive at my local Age UK, Henry Smith funded our befriending work for socially isolated older people. Reducing isolation, building connections and social capital is some of the most valuable work that civil society does. Henry Smith is supporting that kind of work across the country through its grants. I m delighted to have the chance to take this forward.
Since becoming CEO at The Henry Smith Charity, I’ve really enjoyed getting to meet my fellow foundation leaders. I ve found them to be really open and generous with their knowledge, as well as committed and dedicated. I m learning a lot from them.
Our heritage is something we’re very proud of at The Henry Smith Charity. Our principles around helping people in poverty were set out in the 1620s, so we re very aware of the challenge we have to apply our original mission and values in a modern setting. It s something I believe that Henry Smith has been very good at understanding, but it is an ongoing conversation.
Our ‘volunteer visitors’ play a really important role in our application process. They visit the organisations that have applied, helping with assessment and due diligence. Going to visit organisations offers a different dimension and adds more richness to our understanding of organisations and the context in which they operate.
Something all grant makers should be thinking about is how to get closer to the communities we serve. It’s a particular challenge for large national organisations and a constant theme for us at The Henry Smith Charity. As we move into a strategy review period, we will be looking at how we can improve here, particularly in line with our diversity, equity and inclusion principles.
Many organisations we’ve worked with since the pandemic have been dealing with issues of burnout. Now the cost of living crisis is adding to the burden. To address this, we ve deployed an extra £100m from our endowment to help organisations over the next few years. We also asked our grantees what more we could be doing. They told us they d welcome greater fexibility in how they manage their grants. In response, we now encourage them to contact us if they would like to allocate the funds differently – for example, if their costs have gone up. We ll have a conversation and support organisations by making changes to the grant structure. It s a relatively straightforward way we can help organisations respond to immediate cost of living challenges.
I've read a lot about the trust and foundation sector being ‘small c’ conservative and cautious. But that s not been my impression. Many foundations like The Henry Smith Charity have changed a lot in the last decade. More and more, we re supporting those causes that are unpopular and unfashionable’ to fund.
We could be even more ambitious as a sector when it comes to our role in creating and shaping a better society. Grant giving is at the heart of what we do – and it s crucial. But it s only one of the ways we can make a difference. As well as helping people in times of need, we should be looking at addressing the underlying structural conditions that create that need.
The pandemic showed the crucial role of the charity and foundation sectors in modern Britain. That included mobilising local community support and recruiting volunteers for the NHS. We know that this mutual aid mindset’ is something inherent in the charity sector, but what we saw was it s also there in the rest of society as well. There was an instinctive solidarity, with people just helping others. And I would like to see us build on that as a sector.
Foundations sit in an interesting space. We re on the outside, but gain a lot of insight into effective approaches and ways of working from the organisations we support. By sharing this knowledge, we can help more people do their work more effectively. It s something I m really interested in exploring through our strategy.
Sometimes foundations can be a bit shy about having a voice. But we have an important role to play in sharing our knowledge and experience with policy makers and decision makers. Most importantly, we have an essential part to play in amplifying the voices of the people we work with.
We need to maximise our convening power to get key players round the table. We can mobilise our collective approaches to the challenges we re facing as a society, because these challenges are complex and they require different players and different approaches. Foundations can help bring that together.
We need to develop a national vision, a narrative, which is based on human dignity, security and helping others and not just on untrammelled economic growth. The current social structure is under so much strain, fnding new ways to meet the challenges we face is something that we have to do as a society. Foundations have an important role to play in fostering and facilitating this, building on the way people came together in the pandemic.
I’ve applied for funding in my previous roles, so I know the huge amount of time it takes. One way we can help organisations is to make the application process as straightforward and streamlined as possible. I think we are pretty good at this. But there s always room for improvement and it s something we re working on.
Another approach to improving social impact is to help organisations with their capacity and capability. We can do this through training and development, and supporting their governance and fundraising capacity. I ve benefted from management and leadership development programmes, as well as peer support, throughout my career. Foundations need to think about what they can do to create networks and provide that support. It will help organisations become stronger and ready to tackle the challenges society is facing.
Despite the fact we’re living in incredibly challenging times, I do see signs for optimism. I ve gained inspiration
from spending time with my fellow foundation leaders. They re so committed and are coming up with interesting and varied responses to the cost of living crisis in particular. That s very encouraging.
Paraphrasing Geoff Mulgan, the former CEO of Nesta: foundations are among the freest of all institutions in our society. That puts them in the perfect position to take risks that other sectors, for example the public sector, may be reluctant to do. One of the ways that foundations can approach their role is as social entrepreneurs. That involves a degree of risk – coming up with creative ways of meeting the needs of the people we serve and new approaches to making positive change.
I've been involved in the social sector for the last 20 years as an employee, trustee, volunteer, chief executive and chair. And it s a great place to be. I ve learned many new things and I m very grateful for that. Foundations occupy a privileged and fortunate position. And I m determined to make sure that we re using that privilege for the best societal effect.
We aim to deliver consistent positive returns – whatever happens in financial markets.
By putting safety first we’ve made good money for our clients. Through boom and bust. For over 27 years.
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