SIGNS OF OPTIMISM

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.