TFN Winter 2022

COURAGEOUS LEADERSHIP

Preoccupied with keeping charities safe

We

WELCOME

Carol Mack welcomes you to this edition of Trust & Foundation News.

I wrote in the last issue of this magazine how much I was looking forward to being with so many of you in person at our annual conference. What a fantastic day it was!

Thank you to everyone who made it such an inspirational day, particularly to our outstanding breakout session leaders and plenary panel members.

Because of deadlines, we couldn’t include much conference content in this issue apart from some excellent takeaways from our keynote speaker Professor Lucy Easthope. The good news is there is more online and we'll follow up with more in the spring issue of Trust & Foundation News

This issue has kept to the conference theme, however, of courage and leadership. We are going through some dark days at the moment and things can feel very bleak. But that is why our hope and yes, our courage, is essential. While trusts and foundations cannot solve all of the challenges that we face, they do have an important role to play. And many of you are doing this, day in,

day out, making a vital difference to the communities and causes that you care about.

In this issue, Róisín Wood tells us about her experiences of philanthropy, courage and leadership in Northern Ireland, while the Benefact Trust, the Walcot Foundation and Equally Ours talk about being brave in their work. A group of family foundations share their experiences of leadership. And the Co-op Foundation explains how they took the bold decision to hand over power to young people as part of developing their new strategy.

2023 marks the start of our new ACF five-year strategy, which you have helped us shape during the last 12 months. You can read more about this in this issue. We will formally launch it in the new year, and then we will want to collaborate with you about the changes we will need to make to achieve our goals. As we do this, I am certain that by working together, we will inspire each other to show the courageous leadership that is much needed in these troubled times.

P18-20 PROFILE

Salaries

P16-17

SHARED EXPERIENCE

Putting tomorrow’s leaders in charge today

Róisín Wood, CEO, The Community Foundation Northern Ireland

P22-23

FEATURE

Carol Mack on ACF’s future ambitions

P24-25

SHARED EXPERIENCE

Peer learning for family foundations

P26-29 NETWORKS & EVENTS

Learning from our international peers

ACF conference: key takeaways

Economic justice network Events, learning and networks in 2023

Carol Mack OBE, ACF chief executive

LEADERSHIP IN ACTION

Funders on what makes an inspiring leader and why it’s vital to get the right people around the table when it comes to decision-making.

MARCIA ASARE, DIRECTOR, WALCOT FOUNDATION

GRANT-MAKING 2021-22: £2.8M

People have asked me: “How on earth can you have any real impact with a small amount of money in a London borough like Lambeth?”. But we look at it differently. We ask: “What is the change we want to see in Lambeth and what role can the Walcot Foundation play in that change?”. We have a responsibility to use everything we’ve got to make things happen.

Traditionally, funding has been a bit of a sticking plaster. But we can use funding to genuinely improve our understanding of a problem. Funders need to ask different questions if we’re going to get different outcomes. Getting more data will help lead to solutions. That’s why our convening work is so important. We work with local community groups to generate insight into their subsectors and what the needs are, such as issues around youth unemployment, educational underachievement and access to independent advice. Longer term, we want to have more of a convening role with other place-based funders, so we can work together on the change that we're all looking to see in funding.

Like most traditional place-based funders, we have a macro level picture of what’s going on in our borough. And we have good relationships with the community. We’re part of the same

Marcia Asare, director, Walcot Foundation

Working together

There are so many inspiring leaders in this sector. I feel lucky to be around them. They’re doing amazing things. But many organisations still have a massive cultural journey to go on.

When I think about the leaders who’ve done great things, they’ve almost never done it by themselves. I don't think of a leader as someone who comes in and brings the solutions to all the problems. The very best leaders do so with genuine co-authoring. They accept that by working together what you end up with will be so much better than what any of us could have done on our own.

ecosystem as the organisations we’re funding. So, we need to get to a place culturally where there isn't a “them and us”. In our foundation, myself, our staff team and our trustees are one organisation: we’re one people. We’re also one people with our community. What I want for my own family, I want for our staff, and I want for the children, young people and families in this borough. We want to be at the table when decisions about our borough are being made, so we can advocate for the communities we work with. More importantly, we need to ensure that the communities are also at the table. When decisions are being made that affect people, we must find a way to bring those people into the room, so their voices are heard. To do this, we need to intervene in the decision-making structure.

Authenticity and self-awareness are hugely important too. The people I’m inspired by have done their own soul searching. You need to do that first, before you can come into a space and start doing all the co-creating.

One of the hardest things leaders need to do is keep speaking truth to power –inside and outside our organisations. We must be honest and call it how it is. When it comes to the cost of living crisis, there are some who say “there are always going to be tough times”. But the truth is, these are going to be exceptionally hard times.

That’s why organisations need to be brave. CCLA, one of our investment funds, has written to the companies they invest in to ask: “What's your plan to support your lower paid staff during the cost of living crisis?”. Bearing witness, speaking to the things that we see – we should all be doing that.

“WHEN DECISIONS ARE BEING MADE THAT AFFECT PEOPLE, WE MUST FIND A WAY TO BRING THOSE PEOPLE INTO THE ROOM, SO THEIR VOICES ARE HEARD.”

Trusts and foundations have a responsibility and leadership role to play in tackling race inequality. The Funders for Race Equality Alliance is a group of funders working together to achieve race equality in the UK through philanthropy. We create spaces and resources for funders to champion and challenge strategies, behaviours and practices.

One of the Alliance’s key aims is to see an increase in sustainable and flexible funding for Black and Minoritised-led organisations. To help us get a picture of what’s happening now – a baseline for funders to work from –we designed a racial justice audit tool to give us detailed and nuanced data.

We knew that there had been some increase in funding for Black and Minoritised communities since the Alliance started in 2015. With Black Lives Matter, for example, we certainly saw funders stepping up. However, we wanted to identify how much of that funding was directly addressing racial justice work and how much was reaching organisations led by Black and Minoritised individuals.

Our analysis of emergency funding during the pandemic found that, while there was increased funding, most of it was short term. Not a lot of the funding went towards racial justice work

specifically. And, of the organisations with a stated purpose to support Black and Minoritised communities, only just over a quarter were also led by Black and Minoritised individuals.

A commitment to do better

The racial justice audit tool has allowed us to provide funders with answers about where funding is going – and where it isn’t going – so they can look at why that is. These are difficult, complicated conversations to have. But the whole point of the Alliance is that we provide space to have tough conversations. One of our values is to be ‘comfortable with not being comfortable’.

Some organisations may feel anxious about completing the racial justice audit. They’re worried what the results will show and what that may mean about what type of funder they are. Some find they are better than they thought they’d be, while others find they’re worse. Either way, the picture often looks very different to the one they were expecting.

But the audit is not about funders. It’s about making the commitment to do better, for the longer term. It’s a way to hold up a mirror and see what needs doing. The audit is there to provide the data organisations need to think strategically about their funding.

We need to remember that we’re trying to tackle historical underinvestment in the race equality sector. We welcome funders who are interested in understanding more about race equality and injustice within their own systems, but also the wider system too – and the history and pain behind it.

We want to move towards a greater commitment on race equality. We want to see funders build authentic and thriving relationships with race equality organisations. We need the sector to lead on race equality. We can’t wait until everyone feels ready.

Taking action

We owe it to the race equality sector, to Black and Minoritised communities, and also Black and Minoritised people within the philanthropic sector, to prove that this is not just symbolic, this is about action. And that takes leadership.

Leadership is knowing that you don't always have to be the one that speaks. You don't always have to be seen.

Leadership is knowing who's in the room – and, most importantly, who isn't. How do we make sure that decisionmaking is in the hands of the people with experience of the issues we’re discussing?

At the Alliance, everything we do is co-consulted or co-created with the wider race equality sector. We're learning every day. Yes, we'll get things wrong. A good leader admits when they’re wrong. But they also say: “Let me keep trying until I get it right”.

TRACEY AGYEMAN, HEAD OF PROGRAMME, AND YUSRA ALI, PROGRAMME OFFICER, EQUALLY OURS, SECRETARIAT FOR THE FUNDERS FOR RACE EQUALITY ALLIANCE

“LEADERSHIP IS KNOWING THAT YOU DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THE ONE THAT SPEAKS. YOU DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE SEEN.”

Get in touch to find out how your investments can align with your objectives.

Let’s work together for a better world

ccla.co.uk

How we invest has an impact on people and planet, hopefully for the good... and not just to increase the abundance of those who have much but ensuring those who have too little have enough.

LESLEY KING-LEWIS, DIRECTOR, BENEFACT TRUST GRANT-MAKING FOR 2021-22: £19.3M

Benefact Trust was built on a simple but ambitious idea: to be one of the UK’s most impactful Christian grant-makers. This aim sits at the heart of everything we do. We make a difference to people’s lives by funding, guiding and celebrating the work of churches and Christian charities.

At the heart of our grant-making is the belief that if every individual flourishes, communities thrive and society is transformed. Though we only support Christian churches of all denominations and Christian charities, it’s important to note that their beneficiaries can have any faith or no faith. Our grants are designed to have a positive impact on the wider community, tackling social issues from homelessness and poverty to climate change and cultural cohesion.

What’s unusual about the Benefact Trust is that we own an international group of financial services businesses, the Benefact Group. We receive all available profits from the group to fund our grantmaking. While many businesses pay lip service to social purpose, the ethos of ‘giving back’ is very much embedded in the DNA of the Benefact Group. The staff are fully engaged and inspired by how the money they make is being spent. The trust has given away £100m in the last five years and the Benefact Group is the fourth largest corporate donor in the UK.

Our trust is set up so we can make

decisions very quickly. We’re ready to respond to a crisis. At the start of the war in Ukraine, we awarded half a million pounds to organisations like the British Red Cross and Depaul International which are doing phenomenal work on the frontline. We then gave another half a million supporting organisations like Baby Basics and Love Your Neighbour which help Ukrainian refugees in the UK and Ireland. We have responded to the cost of living crisis by allocating a further £500,000 and, as we are keen to get our funds to those most in need as quickly as possible, we will be working with our existing charity partners specialising in homelessness, food banks and vulnerable children.

As well as our small and large grants programmes, we also have a transformational grant programme which provides funding for organisations to make a step change in their capacity, reach, impact and spiritual growth. We’re looking for organisations that are doing something truly different or trialling a new way of working. Their work needs to not just benefit the immediate organisation, but other similar organisations or the wider community, too.

For projects like this to be successful, the most important ingredient is the leader of the organisation. When we award a grant, we’re not making a donation, we’re making an investment. We need to know that if we support an organisation the leader will be able to maximise the difference it will make to its beneficiaries.

Collective strength

Leading a charity in today’s environment is extremely hard and we understand the relentlessness of the daily challenges

leaders face. The CEOs who stand out to me are passionate and very clear about their purpose. They are resilient, agile and fearless. Courage is so important in a leader. That might be courage to challenge trustees, courage to defend the rights of beneficiaries, and courage to make very tough choices, as so many CEOs were forced to do during Covid-19. Leadership is no longer about hierarchy it’s about collaboration, a type of servant leadership, which fits well with our Christian values.

Foundations need to trust the leaders of the organisations they fund. But those leaders also need to trust foundations. They need to feel they can turn to us if they’re struggling and be honest about the challenges they’re facing. I don’t want organisations to be afraid to bring us bad news because that’s a lot better than coming to us when it’s too late for us to help.

We are a committed member of the Christian Funders Forum and are delighted to be a new member of ACF as we believe there’s a much bigger role for trusts and foundations to play. It is not just about giving out grants. We can use our collective strength to influence government, for example.

We need to work with community groups and local councils, pooling our resources and sharing our specialist knowledge to understand where we can make the biggest impact. One of my favourite Winston Churchill quotes is about courage: “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts”.

benefacttrust.co.uk

Lesley King-Lewis, director, Benefact Trust

“LEADERSHIP IN TODAY’S ENVIRONMENT IS EXTREMELY HARD AND WE UNDERSTAND THE RELENTLESSNESS OF THE DAILY CHALLENGES LEADERS FACE.”

ACF MILESTONES

Here

some of the

We have…

• Welcomed Stuart Andrew MP to our conference, his first engagement as minister for civil society. He spoke with members on their priorities for the sector.

• Successfully campaigned alongside other infrastructure bodies for charities to be included in plans to support the business sector with the energy crisis.

• Gathered resources on how foundations are responding to the cost of living crisis, available at acf.org.uk/ cost-of-living. We also held an event on the implications for grant-making.

• Met with the new chair of the Charity Commission for England and Wales, Orlando Fraser, about the role of trusts and foundations.

• Responded to the Charity Commission’s statement regarding updating CC14 investment guidance.

• Welcomed Elaine Wilson, Corra Foundation, and Aleema Shivji, formerly at Comic Relief, as new members of the Funders Collaborative Hub’s Strategy Group.

• Published three member-only briefings. Topics are: Charity

Commission for England and Wales’ consultation on annual returns; cybersecurity tips for foundations, following an event with the National Cyber Security Centre; and the climate change discussion at the evening for foundation chairs. Read the briefings at: acf.org.uk/memberbriefings.

• Launched our third annual benchmarking report on salary and benefits for roles unique to foundations. Read more on pages 12-13.

• Took part in #PEXforum22 in Istanbul, where we shared with European colleagues how UK funders were using ACF’s Stronger Foundations tools to take action on diversity, equity and inclusion. Read more on page 26.

• Participated in the Philanthropy Europe Association (Philea) board retreat with fellow members in Italy in October.

are

things we’ve been doing since the last issue of Trust & Foundation News.

Stuart Andrew MP, minister for civil society, at the ACF conference

MEMBER NEWS

• BBC Children in Need to directly fund core costs

To help address the cost of living crisis, BBC Children in Need has created a new funding stream to cover organisational costs. The aim is to make sure organisations remain sustainable so they can keep delivering effective programmes. It’s part of the funder’s new strategy developed with young people, volunteers, grantees and external stakeholders.

• Foundation introduces story-based evaluation

Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has published an evaluation of its Young People Leaving Care Learning Programme, which supports young people as they become care leavers.

To complement more typical evaluation methods, they used ‘Most Significant Change’, a qualitative method focused on story-based evaluation, which aims to better capture the impact of creative aspects of the participants’ work.

•

Call for more funding for specialist legal advice

A recent report has found that funding for specialist legal advice in England and Wales is in decline, at a time when need is growing. Analysis by 360Giving for The Access to Justice Foundation reveals a significant decline in legal aid funding for specialist legal advice, with the majority coming from just six funders.

• Increasing the impact of investments

Friends Provident Foundation and Golden Bottle Trust have both doubled their investment in Snowball, a specialist fund that invests across the themes of social equity and environmental sustainability. Friends Provident Foundation has pledged to invest a further £1m for every £10m Snowball raises.

• £1m fund from British and Foreign School Society (BFSS)

BFSS has launched a new fund to support educational opportunities for

displaced young people in the UK and internationally. The fund is for UKregistered charities and community groups addressing the specific challenges children and young people displaced by conflict face in accessing quality education.

• The Funding Network turns 20

The Funding Network marked its 20th anniversary in October with a special crowdfunding event and the launch of an impact report. Over two decades, more than £17m has been raised at 657 Funding Network events worldwide and 2,435 non-profits supported.

• State of the Sector survey

Pro Bono Economics (PBE) and the National VCSE Data and Insights Observatory, run by Nottingham Trent University, are partnering to conduct a survey exploring the impact of the cost of living crisis on charities and community groups.

A WARM WELCOME

Introducing some of the latest trusts and foundations to join the ACF community…

ASTRA FOUNDATION

MORRISONS FOUNDATION

Morrisons Foundation was founded by Morrisons Supermarkets in 2015 to fund projects that create a positive impact in local communities. Since then, we’ve donated over £37m through our grant funding and colleague match funding programmes.

Our grants programme funds good causes across England, Scotland and Wales and we’ve provided support in a wide range of areas including:

• health and hospice care

• social inclusion

• food poverty and redistribution

• homelessness

• environmental improvement. Our colleague match funding scheme boosts the fundraising of Morrisons colleagues and their immediate family members for their chosen charities by doubling their donation. So far, we’ve made over 3,000 donations to charities on behalf of Morrisons colleagues and their

We also work closely with Morrisons’ Community Champions whose role is to ensure Morrisons is playing an active and supportive role in the local community. Every Community Champion has supported the work of the foundation – whether through providing extra help for the charities we fund, presenting donations to local charities or helping colleagues with their match funding applications. Looking ahead, we will be harnessing the enthusiasm and experiences of our trustees and the wealth of knowledge being collected and shared by organisations like ACF to ensure that we are practising and promoting strong processes and funding positive outcomes.

morrisonsfoundation.com

The Astra Foundation is a UK-based family foundation established in 2020. Our mission is to advance efforts to combat loneliness in young adults, empower youth to reach their potential regardless of their circumstances, and reduce plastic pollution. Geographically, we support organisations in the UK, France and the African continent.

We support organisations encouraging systemic shifts through influencing policy, as well as organisations working directly with affected groups that show promising approaches to tackling these priority issues. We work proactively and relationally to foster strong partnerships. Facing the complexities of systemic change, we are flexible in our funding and aware that we are one of many funders. In practice, this means accepting updates prepared for others, or where there are mission overlaps with likeminded funders, we are keen to go further and collaborate.

Last year, the Astra Foundation awarded two grants with the Co-op Foundation to organisations tackling youth loneliness. As a small organisation, this can increase our impact and the grant’s value, and support efficiencies in the process for grantee partners. In 2021, the Astra Foundation awarded £2.9m to 13 organisations.

astrafoundation.co.uk

B&Q FOUNDATION

B&Q Foundation was set up in June 2020 to build on home improvement retailer B&Q’s commitment to making a positive difference in local communities. We believe that everyone needs a place to feel at home, so we support local charities that share our vision –helping to create better, safer places for the people in communities who need them most.

We support UK-registered charities with a combination of grants, volunteering time, and home improvement resources. From improving the safety of a disabled person’s home to providing residential support for people with no home of their own – the organisations we back are making a difference to those who don’t have access to what many of us take for granted.

Since launching, we have donated over £3m to 600 charity projects across the UK. Grants are distributed four times a year, but

charities can register their interest in applying for a grant at any time.

The foundation is funded by B&Q through corporate donations, colleague and customer fundraising in stores, and donations on certain products (such as seasonal doormats this Christmas). In September, B&Q colleagues volunteered their time to support several charities that recently received grants from the B&Q Foundation, helping with painting, decorating, and garden improvements.

Recently, we have seen an increase in charities requesting grants for projects to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings. Looking ahead, we are keen to help more charities in this way. We are also looking at providing larger grants for charities to take on bigger projects, with the aim of increasing impact and providing longer-term improvements.

bqfoundation.org.uk

NATIONAL CITIZEN SERVICE (NCS) TRUST

NCS Trust is an arm's length body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport incorporated by Royal Charter and established to shape, support, champion and lead a thriving National Citizen Service.

We commission experiences for 16-17 year olds across England, delivered by the youth sector, and will be offering grant funding for the first time in 2023.

NCS was traditionally a residential programme run every summer and autumn during school holidays, offering young people the opportunity to mix with a new crowd, learn about independent living, take on new challenges and, in the process, build lifelong friendships. Since 2009, more

than 750,000 young people have taken part in NCS, completing over 15 million hours of community action, and gaining priceless life experiences. We have a new strategy which emphasises working closer than ever with the youth sector, and focuses on impact and outcomes with young people. This has guided our move into grant-making, and we will be offering £20m of grant funding over the next two years for youth sector organisations to deliver regular, year-round activities to their community.

wearencs.com

A warm welcome to other new members who’ve recently joined us: Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust

• Bedfordshire Charitable Trust • Benefact Trust • BGF Foundation • The Careers & Enterprise Company

• Community Foundation for Surrey • Disrupt Foundation

• Fondation Chanel • Glasspool Charity Trust

• Greenwich Hospital • Halcrow Foundation

• The Hampstead Wells and Campden Trust • Immersion Capital Foundation

• Partners for a New Economy

• Roger Raymond Charitable Trust • Social Investment Business • Teaching Staff Trust

B&Q Foundation staff and trustees volunteering with grantee Community Integrated Care

NCS' summer residential programme brings together young people of all different backgrounds

SALARIES AND BENEFITS IN OUR SECTOR

trustee positions, opening up the board to younger first-time trustees.”

Our aim for this research is to support our members with meaningful information about salary and benefits, increase awareness of good practice, as well as highlight approaches to diversity, equity and inclusion. We couldn’t do this without our members’ participation and would like to thank everyone who contributed.

This is the third consecutive year that we’ve compiled the report, working, as before, with executive recruitment experts Peridot Partners. We used knowledge gained from the previous two surveys to adapt and improve where possible. For example, we revised the bandings related to grant expenditure from the previous £1m-£5m to include both £1m-£3m and £3m-£5m, as this banding better reflected our membership.

The discussion on salaries is very topical this year as the UK and other countries are in double digit inflation. This data relates to that recorded on 1 January 2022.

WHO RESPONDED?

• There were 139 responses – compared to 115 in 2020 and 142 in 2021. Around 40% of this year’s respondents were different to 2021. Less than half were from London, and we had a good mix of responses from across the UK. (Around 67% of the ACF membership is from London and the South East.)

• 54% of respondents had five staff or fewer, which is similar to the previous two years.

• Just over a half of respondents were from national independent foundations or family foundations.

• 39% of organisations had grant expenditure of up to £1m and 39% had grant expenditure of £1m-£5m.

• 69% had net assets of under £100m, with 9% of organisations holding net assets of over £750m.

HOMEWORKING

We asked if staff have the option of homeworking following the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions – 63% said ‘yes, some of the time’, with 34% stating ‘yes, all of the time’. Over 60% of respondents said their homeworking policy has changed as a result of Covid-19.

When asked to consider what percentage of time staff are working from home, 72% of organisations reported that staff are homeworking for more than half of their hours. This is much more than was expected last year, when 46% of respondents estimated that their staff would work more than half of their hours from home once restrictions were lifted.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

We asked if organisations’ diversity initiatives had evolved in the last year. Of those that responded, 71% had increased their focus on becoming more diverse. Smaller organisations were less likely to have recruited in this period, which means there was less likely to be a notable impact on their workforce. But overall, there were a variety of examples of initiatives to achieve greater diversity.

Comments included:

• “We have made our first participatory grant for care leavers and have funded a fellowship programme for leaders from diverse backgrounds.”

• “We have stopped using CVs and traditional interview processes for

• “Advertising in a wider range of media, including networks for under-represented groups, and specialist websites such as Evenbreak. All applications anonymised by someone not involved in shortlisting process. Removing Barriers to Work form as part of recruitment pack for individuals to request any adaptions or support required. Guaranteed interview for anyone meeting essential job criteria and identifying with a disability.”

• “All staff undertake diversity training. All staff involved in recruitment and interviewing undertake special training for diversity recruitment.”

BENEFITS

Flexible hours and remote working were the most prevalent benefits, followed by enhanced pension schemes and enhanced sickness pay and support. Other enhanced benefits mentioned included: wellbeing activity allowance and personal development days; employee assistance phoneline or programme; BUPA health checks and annual medicals; insurance, such as critical illness and income protection insurance; long-service leave; and enhanced family-friendly policies, such as maternity leave.

SALARIES

57% of respondents said they had given staff pay increases in the last year (2021). But they were significantly more cautious than in 2020 and pay increases were below national averages. 32% of respondents indicated that staff salary increases were to some extent dependent on performance, which is less than last year. There was a trend towards higher percentage increases, with 3%, 5%, and 4% being the most frequently selected answers. This trend is particularly notable as in 2021 annual earnings for full-time employees reportedly fell by around 0.6%*

* statista.com/statistics/802113/annual-earninggrowth-in-the-uk/

ACF’s senior membership manager Natasha Robinson shares insights from our 2022 salary and benefits benchmarking survey report.

across the UK. It’s important to bear in mind that those who responded were using information that predated recent inflation rises.

For context, according to the Office for National Statistics**, the Consumer Price Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) rose by 4.8% in the 12 months to December 2021. By comparison, the same has risen by 8.8% in the 12 months to July 2022***.

CEO AND INVESTMENT ROLES

• The lowest median salary for a CEO or equivalent role was £63,184 (a combined figure for Northern Ireland and Wales) compared with a high of £126,937 for London.

• In general, the size of the organisation has more influence over the CEO (or equivalent) salary than type of organisation, although there are exceptions.

• Based on the medians, salaries were lowest in community foundations. They were highest (£100k+) in family foundations; voluntary organisations where grant-making is not a primary focus; membershipfunded grant-makers; city livery foundations or similar; and those in the combined category of benevolent fund, and ‘other’.

• The data collected for investment roles shows that specialist investment roles are most prevalent in larger foundations and salaries generally increase as the grant expenditure level rises, though there are some exceptions.

Salaries varied widely across all categories of organisation:

– Investment officers from £15k to £45k

– Investment managers from £30k to £100k

– Head of investment from £40k to £110k

– Director of investment from £50k to over £150k.

GRANT-GIVING ROLES

Organisations with zero to five full-time equivalent roles (FTE) including self-employed or freelance staff

We reviewed the data from 76 organisations with up to five FTE. It’s interesting to note that in the smallest organisations, the most common roles were ‘grant-making assistant’ and ‘grant-making manager’, although ‘officer’ and ‘director’ are not far behind.

Organisations with six to 29 FTE

ACF SALARY AND BENEFITS BENCHMARKING SURVEY REPORT 2022

We reviewed data from 42 organisations. The median salaries in organisations with six to 29 FTE staff are generally lower than in organisations with up to five FTE staff, which is a trend that we have now seen over three years of the survey. This pattern could reflect broader role profiles and responsibilities in small foundations, with more tightly defined responsibilities for roles within larger organisations.

Organisations with 30 to 100 or more FTE

We reviewed the data from 21 organisations with 30 to 100 or more FTE. Most of the respondents were from London. The median salary levels in the largest-sized organisations were higher than in medium-sized organisations. Based on this year’s data, they are also higher than in smaller organisations for the ‘manager’, ‘head of’ and ‘director’ roles.

FIND OUT MORE

ACF members can download a copy of the report at acf.org.uk/salary-survey

If you have any questions or feedback about it, please email membership@acf.org.uk Other organisations that have carried out sector salary benchmarking surveys include ACEVO, CharityComms, Harris Hill and TPP.

peridotpartners.co.uk

With kind support from

Please note, to establish a consistent salary and benefits benchmarking survey across all our members the data relates to that recorded within the organisation on 1 January 2022. All responses in the report were kept anonymous.

Much has changed since the Charity Commission’s guidance on investing for charities* was last updated in 2016. There has

been a dramatic shift in our awareness of climate change, in particular. The Paris Agreement, which aims to limit the rise in global temperatures, came into force in 2016 and investors now have much greater insight into listed companies’ environmental impact. While many are moving towards alignment with the Paris Agreement goals, others are making little progress.

This raises difficult questions for trustees, especially those working with foundations with environmental objectives and concerns. Can trustees make investments that are not aligned with the Paris Agreement? And is a Paris-aligned investment universe consistent with the long-standing view that charities should invest to “maximise return”?

The trustees of two charities – Ashden and the Mark Leonard Trust – recently sought to clarify the law around these issues in a case that was heard by the High Court, Butler-Sloss & Ors v The Charity Commission & Ors**. The two charities have general charitable objects but have elected to pursue “environmental protection or improvement” and “relief of poverty”.

Luke Fletcher, a partner at law firm Bates Wells, acted for the trustees in this case and spoke to us about it at a recent update for charity trustees***. He said: “It’s a case that throws up a broad range of issues and questions for all foundation trustees. Importantly, the judgment articulates the law as it currently stands – so trustees ought to be applying the principles that it describes now, rather than waiting for an update to the Charity Commission’s guidance.”

CLARIFYING THE LEGAL POSITION

The Charity Commission’s current guidance is largely based on the 1991 Bishop of Oxford case. It was brought by the Bishop of Oxford against the Church Commissioners, centred on South Africa-related investments at the time of apartheid. The Church Commissioners already had an ethical investment policy in place, but the Bishop of Oxford wanted it to go further.

* gov.uk/government/publications/charities-andinvestment-matters-a-guide-for-trustees-cc14

** bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2022/974.html

*** cazenovecapital.com/articles/charities/2022/ responsible-investment-for-charities-watch-the-replay/

CHARITY INVESTMENT: WHAT DO THE LATEST LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS MEAN FOR FOUNDATIONS?

Tom Montagu-Pollock, co-head of charities at Cazenove, looks at how a recent High Court judgment puts more responsibility on foundation trustees to balance financial and non-financial considerations.

The claim was rejected, but the judgment did give a firmer legal basis for foundation trustees opting for ethical investment policies. The judge said that the “maximum return … consistent with commercial prudence” should be the “starting point for all charity trustees”. But he acknowledged that there could be circumstances where other considerations should be taken into account. These include both direct conflicts with a charity’s purpose (such as a cancer research charity investing in tobacco) and indirect conflicts (where potential investments could alienate potential charity donors or recipients).

The Charity Commission’s current guidance on ethical investment is based on a relatively conservative interpretation of the case. It quotes the judge’s observation that “most charities need money; and the more of it there is available, the more the trustees can seek to accomplish”. It follows up by advising trustees to “keep in mind the fundamental principle of maximising return” when making ethical investments.

WHY WAS THE BUTLER-SLOSS CASE NECESSARY?

This framework is no longer satisfactory for many foundation trustees. This became apparent to the trustees of the Ashden Trust and Mark Leonard Trust after the release of the IPCC report in 2018, which highlighted the “rapid and far-reaching” transitions needed to limit global temperature rises and the terrible consequences of inaction.

The judge in the Butler-Sloss case accepted the view that investments that are not aligned with the Paris Agreement could be in direct conflict with their charitable objectives. “He didn’t say this was necessarily right … but accepted that it was a reasonable conclusion for the trustees to reach,” explained Luke Fletcher. “The Bishop of Oxford case predated climate change. When the trustees of the Ashden Trust and Mark Leonard Trust asked the question ‘What are our duties in light of climate change?’ the case wasn’t that illuminating. Different lawyers would have given very different answers.”

One issue identified by the trustees was that limiting investments to those aligned with the Paris Agreement would result in a much-reduced investment universe. This is a very different scenario to those set out in the Bishop of Oxford judgment, which contemplated narrow

sectoral exclusions (for example, tobacco or defence) with much more limited investment implications as a result.

The Bishop of Oxford case is also unclear about exactly how trustees should balance their duty to maximise return with other considerations. The judgment says that trustees “should” avoid investments that directly conflict with their charitable objects – but does this mean they are prohibited? What if there is a potential for conflict, but insufficient information to know for sure? This could often be the case when it comes to assessing whether or not a company is aligned with the Paris Agreement.

So, in part, the Butler-Sloss case was a way of clarifying current law. And the judge gave a clear summary of the law on charity investment.

In short, trustees must use their power to invest “to further the charitable purposes”. He goes on to explain that this is “normally achieved by maximising the financial returns on the investments that are made” while taking into account “the suitability of the investment, the need for diversification and taking appropriate advice to produce the best financial return at an appropriate level of risk for the benefit of the charity and its purposes.

“But where trustees are of the reasonable view that particular investments or classes of investments potentially conflict with the charitable purposes, the trustees have a discretion as to whether to exclude such investments. They should exercise that discretion by reasonably balancing all relevant factors including, in particular, the likelihood and seriousness of the potential conflict and the likelihood and seriousness of any potential financial effect from the exclusion of such investments.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR FOUNDATIONS

“This judgment recognises that potential conflicts with charitable objects could exist across the investment universe,” said Luke Fletcher.

“The judgment places a lot of emphasis on the idea of trustees’ discretion. It’s not for the court or the Charity Commission to decide whether a conflict exists – it’s for trustees. In many ways, the judgment is empowering trustees to think about these questions and come to their own conclusions. It is placing a far greater responsibility on trustees to weigh up all relevant factors.”

BATES WELLS’ PRACTICAL STEPS FOR FOUNDATIONS

1. Brief foundation trustees on legal principles

2. Review and reflect upon objectives and investment

– Identify potential conflicts with objects (and relevant positive impact)

– Identify any relevant relational or reputation risks

– Consider relevant evidence regarding conflicts

3. Develop investment policy in best interests of charitable purposes

– Consider seeking advice (financial and other)

4. Document discussions/ decisions in minutes and investment policy

– Include conclusion on conflicts and any balancing exercise

5. Instruct your investment manager and review over time

Cazenove Capital manages investment portfolios for the two charities that were involved in this case. We can advise trustees on developing investment policies that are aligned with a wide range of charitable objectives. This article does not constitute legal advice.

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.

PUTTING TOMORROW’S LEADERS IN CHARGE TODAY

In preparing its new funding strategy, the Co-op Foundation went to their community to find out what they wanted. Jamie Ward-Smith, Co-op Foundation chair and ACF trustee, explains what they learned in the process.

In early October, Co-op Foundation released a new strategy after 18 months of highly cooperative development with young people, community partners, other funders and the Co-op. ‘Building communities of the future together ’ was a watershed moment for the Co-op's charity and a high point of my six-year tenure as chair. It heralded a new funding direction for the foundation, a vision of future communities we could all enjoy, and an invigorating approach to learning that would move us away from traditional reporting and towards a focus on improving practice.

But what stood out for me more than anything else was that young people didn’t just want to sit back and inherit what we’d build – they wanted to be at the forefront of how we created it, too. Would we truly have the courage to give away power like this? And what would we learn on the way?

ABOUT THE CO-OP FOUNDATION

Co-op Foundation is Co-op's charity and we’re cooperating for a fairer world. We believe cooperation is at the heart of strong communities and we believe this makes us a different kind of funder.

Previously, we were best known as a thematic funder, tackling issues like youth loneliness and the financial sustainability of community spaces. Our £7m grants programme for youth groups has helped to connect and empower more than 31,000 young people to tackle loneliness, while our Lonely Not Alone campaign has reached more than 3.1 million young people UK-wide.

January 2021 to bring this ambition to life. We wanted to build our new strategy cooperatively and give away as much power as possible, so it was truly owned by the people that it was for. Lived experience would be key.

It was an innovative, albeit challenging, way to work, and we knew from the start that it would take time.

HOW DID WE DO IT?

We recognised immediately that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to cooperatively build a strategy while maintaining the day-to-day running of a foundation. “Changing the engines in midflight" was an expression Nick often used to describe the challenge.

For this reason, the trustees empowered Nick and his team by partnering with strategy consultants Impact Works Associates. The eventual process followed these steps:

• ‘Learning’ through desk research and interviews into the funding principles and strategies of our sector peers and colleagues.

• ‘Listening’ sessions with funded partners to understand what worked for them in the funding they’d received so far (and what didn’t).

• ‘Imagine’ sessions with Co-op Foundation colleagues and trustees to look to the future and consider where we’d want to be, and how we’d want to support communities in 10 years’ time.

Young people taking part in a youth social action session at Greater Manchester Youth Network, funded through the Co-op Foundation’s #iwill Fund.

But our learning throughout this time and, later, during the Covid-19 pandemic, compelled us to build an increasingly flexible way of funding with cooperation embedded at the heart of the process.

Our CEO, Nick Crofts, joined us in

• ‘Alignment’ sessions with the Coop to ensure our future plans would complement and add value to their broader vision of ‘Co-operating for a Fairer World’.

‘Building communities of the future together’ is the product of this work. It is founded on three principles:

“WE ASKED YOUNG PEOPLE TO IMAGINE WHAT FUTURE, FAIR COMMUNITIES SHOULD LOOK LIKE FOR OUR NEW STRATEGY. WE FULLY EXPECTED THEM TO TALK ABOUT BEING FUTURE LEADERS. BUT THEY MADE IT VERY CLEAR THAT THEY WANTED TO BE IN THE LEAD NOW.”

Asimina Vergou, head of learning and impact, Co-op Foundation

1. An aspirational vision of what communities could look like in 10 years’ time if they were fair and built on cooperative values.

2. A commitment to support organisations and, for the first time for the foundation, young people directly to bring this vision to life through distinctly cooperative funding that is more accessible and tailored to needs. This moves us away from being a thematic funder and directs us to becoming a much more participatory, flexible and unrestricted grant-giver.

3. A focus on collaboration with Co-op and other funders and partners to extend our reach and impact.

WHAT WE LEARNED

1. Putting co-operative values first meant two separate pieces of work

Once we had agreed our outline strategy we had a conundrum – what could a Future Communities Vision actually look like? We couldn’t do this on our own, in-house. Instead, we needed to ask the people who would inherit these communities – today's young people. In all, we spoke to around 100 diverse young people from all over the UK and gave them the power to shape this vision through focus groups and WhatsApp diaries. From this, we could identify the strategic priorities and steps we’d need to fund to bring it to life – such as inclusion,

community safety and sustainability. Some might say we were brave to give away so much power but, for us, it was simply the right thing to do to ensure our strategy was fit for purpose.

To enable the participation of the broadest range of young people, and remove any potential barriers to inclusion, we reimbursed them for their time. We also donated to community organisations that opened up their youth groups to us.

2. Look to the long term

The current trend for strategies is to look to the long term, and we agree. We’re building a vision of communities in 10 years’ time. This initial five-year term on our strategy will enable us to check in on how we’re getting on.

3. Give young people the power to lead longer term, too.

As well as empowering young people to imagine our future vision, we also plan to engage them long term. For the first time, we’ll fund young people directly to help us achieve their vision. This will be an iterative process for us as we build our understanding in this area, and we’re committed to learning from other funders who already work in a similar way.

If you work with any young people who might be interested in helping us allocate funding and measure success and impact, ask them to get in touch at foundation@ coop.co.uk

4. Re-imagine what you want from learning

We’re passionate about moving away from traditional monitoring and reporting. We want to celebrate and share learning and take away the duplication of work that goes into a lot of reporting to ensure we don’t just tick boxes and file reports never to be seen again. We held creative sessions with our funded partners to understand more about what this could look like. There was a real focus on reducing form filling, so our partners can think more on their impact while we learn together about what works (and what doesn’t). We’ll report back more in 2023.

5. Participatory grant-making will take time

We’re at the start of a journey to become a truly participatory grant-maker and it will take time for us to understand what best in class looks like. We didn’t launch a fund on the same day as our strategy for this very reason. Participatory grant-making is still a relatively new concept, so we’re committed to sharing what we learn with others, as well as learning from the pioneers who have already taken those first steps.

For me, participatory grant-making is also about exploring the potential for funders and other partners to come together. This would involve learning from each other and co-operating so we can maximise the impact of our resources and achieve the bigger goal of making our communities fairer for everyone. I’m proud of our track record of working with other funders and, with this strategy, I hope we can take this even further.

SO, DID WE REALLY GIVE AWAY POWER?

It was certainly challenging as a funder. But by giving young people the platform to imagine aspirational, fair and co-operative communities, we’ve developed a vision that will direct our funding and campaigns for years to come. And by funding young people directly, they’ll be on the journey with us.

Building communities of the future together. It’s in our hands. Learn more about our new strategy and how we made it at coopfoundation.org.uk

Follow me on Twitter @jamiewardsmith

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Róisín

Ireland, spoke to Sarah Myers about trusting communities, humble leadership, and the power of the beautiful game.

From a very young age I’ve felt the need to fight for tolerance and justice. I grew up in a divided area of Northern Ireland. It was tough for me and my family. There were challenges growing up and we did suffer a level of sectarianism. I knew then that for anyone to endure that was wrong and since then I’ve had a real desire to try and make things more equal for people – no matter what their religion, skin colour, gender, sexual orientation or ability.

I get really angry about unfairness. I find it completely illogical, but I do try to understand why people think what they think. It’s so important to always be checking your own prejudices, too.

I talk a lot about the business case for diversity, equity and inclusion. If you don’t want to do the work because it's morally right, do it because it's good for business. Every single piece of research you’ll read will tell you that the more diverse your team is, the better it is.

When I was nominated for an OBE, all my family said the same thing: “You’re accepting it for mum aren’t you?”. My mother is probably my biggest role model. She passed away a couple of years ago. The OBE was a huge honour. When I was interviewed afterwards, I said: “This is on behalf of the team at Kick it Out and all the hard work that they did.”

LEARNING FROM YOUR TEAM

Social justice and equality are vitally important to me – so is football. I'm a lifelong Liverpool fan. To work for the Football Foundation and then Kick It Out was a dream come true. At the Football Foundation our grants for education, wellbeing and inclusion had such an impact. I'm a big believer in the power of sport to show what inclusion and respect really mean. We should always take that power very seriously.

Footballers have a way of reaching people that educators and politicians can sometimes miss. Whether you agree with footballers being role models or not, they have an incredible ability to influence. Just look at Marcus Rashford.

One of the hardest jobs I’ve ever had was being CEO at Kick It Out. I was there nine years. It's really challenging to run an organisation that focuses on racism in football. They took a chance when they appointed me as CEO. I took a lot of flak – and I did a lot of learning. But I was passionate and fundamentally believed in what I was doing. When people ask me what it takes to work in football, I say: “A lot of integrity, a lot of stamina, the ability to laugh at yourself and, in my case, some white wine”.

Humility is an essential quality in a good leader. It’s a great strength. Just because you're the CEO, it doesn't mean you know everything – and you shouldn’t. You need to be humble enough to recognise what you don't know, and ask the people who do. I have an amazing senior leadership team here at The Community Foundation Northern Ireland and I learn from them every single day.

TACKLING GRASSROOTS ISSUES

We know the community and voluntary sector very well in Northern Ireland. They trust us and we trust them. How do we build trust? By building strong relationships. We work hand in hand with communities – there is no “them and us”. Our grants and programmes are about equipping and empowering the local community to create change. Together, we help drive social justice and make sure people can thrive.

We connect people who care with the causes that matter. We advise individuals, families and businesses on giving, philanthropy and funding, helping people to find the best ways to support the issues and causes that inspire them. We support funders to reach into grassroots in Northern Ireland. We manage more than 70 different donor advised funds and we’ve helped people

Wood OBE, CEO, The Community Foundation Northern

give where needed most – the right causes, people and places. We’re here to both support and promote philanthropy.

Northern Ireland has many of the same issues as the rest of the UK. But the make-up of society and the voluntary sector is different and, for some communities, they’re also dealing with the aftermath of the conflict. Communities can be quite segregated and also isolated, particularly in rural areas. Isolated rural communities are being hit hardest by the cost of living crisis. We’re very worried, particularly with the lack of a community transport system here and the rising costs for charities to deliver services. Some older people simply won’t be able to leave their houses. We also have to tackle issues like illegal lending in Northern Ireland. When people have no other options that’s where they turn for money – and we all know what the consequences can be.

Community and grassroots organisations are the lifeblood of Northern Ireland – as they are in most countries. At the heart of these organisations are the people who volunteer their time to look after their local communities. We’re seeing fewer people volunteering since Covid-19 and things simply aren’t going to work without them.

We’re working collaboratively to maximise our impact during the cost of living crisis. Funders can do so much more when they work together. Sharing information saves time and resources and mitigates against risk. We're part of the Funders Forum for Northern Ireland and we’re always looking at how and where we can partner with others. We also sit on the Emergencies Leadership Group, which was set up to coordinate a joint government and sector response to the pandemic. Now, we’re working on ways to influence and support the Minister for Communities and the government to tackle the cost of living crisis. It’s our moral obligation.

STRIPPING BACK BUREAUCRACY

As funders, we need to make our processes as simple and user friendly as possible. We know community and voluntary organisations can make a huge impact, even with small grants. So, we must not give them hoops to

Meeting with staff from Action for Children

Róisín Wood with Eddie Lynch, commissioner for older people for Northern Ireland

jump through, huge forms to fill in, or keep asking them to verify every penny. Our networks and ‘Seeing is Believing’ visits to grantees tell us what we need to know about the difference our funding is making to communities.

A vital lesson learned during Covid-19 was how to get money out to the sector very fast, without unnecessary bureaucracy. As one of the biggest independent funders in Northern Ireland, we're very keen to maintain that approach – because it worked. Let's not go back to the old ways. Let’s continue to be agile. Let's be brave and smart, go forward and take risks. Just as it was during Covid-19, the community and voluntary sector will be one of the mainstays of the cost of living crisis. So, we need to get money out the door quickly again.

People in this sector are incredibly creative and innovative. Funders need to support this by listening to those with lived experience of the issues we are trying to address and take risks. And if things don't work out, we need to be okay

with that. We need to have boards of trustees that understand risk, because it’s one thing being able to talk about risks, it's another thing to take them.

Funders have a lot of influence and power – and we need to think responsibly about how we use it. We’re here to serve the communities we work with, so we must listen to them and seek out what they need. As The Community Foundation Northern Ireland is a place-based funder, we must try our very best to inspire others to invest here and connect that investment with the organisations that need it. And it is an “investment” often in a small acorn that you hope will grow into a big tree.

We have no interest in just being a transactional funder. There is a role for that, but it’s not our role. At The Community Foundation Northern Ireland we want to influence the way government and other funders allocate money. We want to support communities to be heard. We don’t need to be the voice of communities; they have their

own voice. But sometimes it’s not being heard. We can help amplify that voice and make sure the right people are listening. Communities know what they want and they’re very, very vocal about it. Now we need to take action.

Responsible investment is critical to what we do. As a community foundation, we need to constantly ask: “Are we doing the right thing with our endowment?”. When you’re investing large sums of money every year, you need to be absolutely sure where that money is going. Responsible, ethical investing is such an important way to make an impact. I'd like to see all foundations really consider responsible investing and the work that ACF has supported under Stronger Foundations is a great resource.

When it comes to action on climate change you have to bring people on a journey. That’s what we’re trying to do with our grants. We’re looking at incentivising. For example, when we offer a grant, we might say: “There’s a bit extra we can include if you commit to recycling”. We’re often talking about organisations run by small teams of volunteers. They’re busy doing the work. They’re out there providing care or delivering food parcels. They don’t have spare time or resources. We have to put ourselves where people are and think about how to bring them with us.

It bugs me when people refer to us as the ‘third sector’. Stop putting us third. People come into the voluntary sector because they believe in what we're doing here and want to make a difference. That doesn't mean we're amateurs. We’re professionals and that should be reflected in salaries and opportunities to progress. Because of the status quo, as it stands, we’re losing young talented leaders from the sector. They have the commitment but if we want them to stay, we need to make sure this is an attractive sector to work in.

It's a privilege to do what we do. I’m always very clear about that. I take that privilege very seriously. I really do love my job. And why wouldn’t I? It’s such a cool job.

Róisín Wood with Gary Stannett, CEO of the Rio Ferdinand Foundation

SERVING OUR MEMBERS – THE ROAD AHEAD

At the start of 2022, ACF started a dialogue with members and others about our new five-year strategy. Your feedback was invaluable. Carol Mack, ACF chief executive, sets out some of the thinking behind the 2023-27 strategy, approved by ACF’s board this autumn.

Back in February we asked you, our members, to help us with phase one of developing our new strategy. Over the course of that month, you told us what you thought the opportunities and challenges were for foundations over the next five years, how to describe ACF in three words, what would help foundations be ambitious and effective, and who we should be collaborating with and on what.

Building on your responses we worked up some initial ideas, which we developed over the summer with feedback from members, staff, our board, and critical friends, in numerous workshops, meetings and interactions. For example, some of you came to a strategy workshop just before our June AGM.

There were several inflection points, key decisions we needed to take, which, although not prominent in the crisp final form of the strategy, were nevertheless crucial in scoping what is in – and as importantly – what is not in the final strategy.

HOW WE SUPPORT FOUNDATIONS

ACF is a relatively small organisation, and although personally I’d often thought of ourselves as a “one stop shop”, this underestimates the range of diverse needs that foundations have, as well as the many groups that offer specialist expertise and creative thought leadership to our sector.

Most recently the experience of developing the Funders’ Collaborative Hub, which now showcases over 110 collaborations between funders, was ample proof, if any were needed, that ACF cannot do it all, and shouldn’t try to.

Our first response was that perhaps

GRANT-MAKING IS REALLY, REALLY IMPORTANT

It was striking that most of the feedback from external stakeholders was about the way in which foundations make grants, and the role that ACF can play in encouraging good practice. Funding practice is one of the six themes considered by our Stronger Foundations initiative, in which we recognise that grant-making is “where the rubber hits the road”, encouraging foundations to think hard about the demands they place on others.

we needed to be more of a “first port of call” – the place that foundations initially turn to when they need external support. But when we consulted members about this over the summer, the feedback came through loud and clear that this sounded like dodging the issue; as if members would turn to ACF only to be sent off on a wild goose chase somewhere else to find the help they needed.

In partnership with members, we developed the concept of being the “go-to place for advice and information tailored to the foundation sector”. This sounds straightforward but to live up to the promise of this simple phrase, ACF will need to curate inspiring, practical and accessible learning and support, and share practical tools and resources to enable and empower stronger foundations.

We will also need to develop a deeper understanding of the charitable funding ecosystem of which we are a part, identify gaps and work with others to fill them, and develop the knowledge and expertise to point members to the right resources for them.

The good news is that there are many initiatives focused on better grantmaking – including IVAR’s flexible funding commitments, #FixTheForm, and the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) data standard, to name but three. There is more good news: ACF members are prominent in many of these initiatives, and there is lots of great practice by members to draw on. So the new strategy will see us creating opportunities to work with partners towards common goals as we continue to support foundations to achieve excellent practice. We want to cultivate vibrant communities of practice, strengthening connections across and beyond the sector.

None of this is to say that we will abandon our focus on the power of endowments to effect change and to enable foundations to continue their grant-making. To reiterate the oft-quoted Jed Emerson, to look at a foundation and see the grants, is like looking at a horse and seeing the manure. We should not lose sight of the potential to harness the power of the endowment beast in service of the charitable mission.

“WE ARE FIRST AND FOREMOST A MEMBERSHIP ASSOCIATION – THAT IS THE BEDROCK OF EVERYTHING WE DO.”

GROWING INSTITUTIONAL PHILANTHROPY

Another strand of work that we considered was ACF’s responsibility for supporting and growing institutional philanthropy. Given the difficult fiscal environment, it is clear that public sector funding for charitable causes will be in short supply, and early indications are that donations from a hard-pressed public will also come under pressure. Foundations are an important piece of the funding pie, and growing that piece of the pie will help the communities and causes that members care about.

But what, we wondered, did that mean for ACF?

There are many brilliant organisations already working to encourage philanthropy – CAF, The Beacon Collaborative, Philanthropy Impact – too many to namecheck them all. So it is important that ACF doesn’t step into this space in a way that duplicates, but rather that is helpful and adds value. We concluded that as the leading membership association for foundations, aka institutional philanthropy, our contribution will be about how we can effect positive change with and for our members.

ADVANCING DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

We also looked long and hard at our role in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in our sector. We started out with expansive aspirations but with the help of specialist consultancy, Diversity and Ability, we realised that these ambitions needed to be grounded in practical action. And they needed to be realistic about our starting point, including what ACF does and is – that we must “be the change we want to see”.

So our strategy will see us taking practical steps to advance diversity, equity and inclusion for our sector and for ACF. We will do this by building and sustaining a diverse membership, championing and celebrating practice which addresses systemic inequities, and gathering and sharing data to deepen our understanding of barriers to, and support progress towards, diversity, equity and inclusion. This builds on the work we and our members have done over the past five years.

A COMPELLING MEMBER OFFER

So what next? Well, firstly, my thanks to all those who helped us shape the new strategy, which we think is bold, ambitious and responds to what you told us. We will be formally launching it in the new year and will then want to collaborate with you about the changes we will need to make to achieve our goals – especially in such challenging times.

While we will refresh our vision and purpose in the new strategy, what will not change are our values – that ACF cares, and is open, evidence-based and ambitious. And what will also not change is our commitment to you, our members. We are first and foremost a membership association – that is the bedrock of everything we do. Ensuring that we continue to have a compelling member offer is perhaps the most critical success factor on which all of our strategy depends. To this end we want to make sure that our membership offer represents value for foundations, regardless of your size, area of interest and location in the UK. And we want to continue to grow and strengthen our membership community over the next five years. Here’s to 2023 and beyond!

“FOUNDATIONS ARE AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF THE FUNDING PIE, AND GROWING THAT PIECE OF THE PIE WILL HELP THE COMMUNITIES AND CAUSES THAT MEMBERS CARE ABOUT.”

A CHALLENGE SHARED IS A CHALLENGE HALVED: PEER LEARNING FOR FAMILY FOUNDATIONS

For the past 18 months, a small group of family foundations has met regularly to share experiences and help each other develop practice. They led a breakout session at the ACF conference in November. Here they share some of the ideas discussed.

Although there is no official definition, ACF has noted that family foundations are commonly defined as “funded principally by the personal gift of an individual donor, family or family business – whether or not anyone from the family is still involved in the foundation’s governance”*.

Currently, 26% of ACF’s members describe themselves as family foundations**.

Although varying in size, age and focus, many family foundations have similar attributes, for example, some sense of connection to the wishes of the original donor. They share similar strengths, such as a strong sense of personal commitment to the foundation among the family trustees, as well as challenges particular to family foundations, such as diversity in our governance.

For the purpose of membership of our group, we used a narrower definition than the one above. Our definition of a family foundation is one where the majority of its trustees belong to the family of the original donor. We felt that this would mean we would be more likely to have common issues to explore within the group.

Our group was set up after one of us used ACF’s knowledge sharing platform, Funder Network – a protected space for funders to ask questions and share knowledge with peers – to ask whether other family foundations would be interested in forming a virtual learning set to work through ACF’s Stronger Foundations self-assessment tool. We began meeting virtually during the early days of the pandemic.

Six foundations participate in the group, including: AIM Foundation, JAC

Trust, LFT Charitable Trust and Wates Foundation. We find this is a good size for a group of this type, allowing the time and space for us all to contribute. One member’s organisation currently has no paid staff and we have found that having a mixture of paid staff and one trustee has enriched our discussions.

One of the first steps we took was to agree ground rules for the group, including that the same people would attend from each foundation. This has helped to build trust and enable sharing. Meeting regularly (every six to eight weeks) has helped the group to bond. It has also created a sense of accountability, as we update each other on what we said we would aim to achieve at the previous meeting.

The first Stronger Foundations theme that we worked on was Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), as this was the one that we were all finding the most challenging given the nature of family foundations. As an example of how participating in the group has helped us to take action, prompted by the discussions in the group, one of our members has recruited two independent, non-family, trustees to its board for the first time. Although recruiting primarily for key skills, this has also added to the diversity of its board in relation to life experience and age. We have now moved on to the Funding Practices pillars and, perhaps not surprisingly, we are finding we are all scoring more highly here compared to DEI.

But we have also found that we are spending more

time in our meetings sharing what we are each working on and discussing wider issues affecting family foundations.

SHARING LEARNING

We have all taken away different learning from the meetings. However, some issues are common for most of us and, we believe, are particularly or uniquely relevant to family foundations. These include:

• The format, diversity and experience of the board, and the basis on which family and non-family members are involved.

• How diversity and lived experience might be incorporated into the whole organisation.

• How we communicate, get involved, build knowledge and share decisionmaking responsibilities within the wider family.

• How our funding can be independent and potentially take more risks, be flexible in delivery and responsive to emergent issues and grantees’ feedback.

• How we can take a longer-term perspective. This includes the need to evolve as next generations of the family become involved, while honouring the legacy of the founder and responding to today’s needs.

Some of the issues we have shared include:

• The potential for rivalries and conflicts or avoidance of an issue for fear of upsetting other family members.

• The risk of importing behaviours and histories from “the dining room to the boardroom”.

• The need to balance real and perceived conflicts of interest between family and charity.

• A board of family trustees might be more likely to want to safeguard its privacy. This could add to an

impression that family foundations do what they want and avoid scrutiny.

• As the foundation grows, knowing when the time is right to transition from an entirely volunteer effort to needing to take on staff, introduce technology and formal systems and procedures – and managing any associated sense of loss of control by the trustees.

• The question of who counts as “family”, as families become more complex and extended, as well as who gets to make decisions and when should the next generation get involved.

• The potential pressure to be involved in the foundation for reasons of family expectation or loyalty, rather than choice.

We have shared many resources (such as grantee survey questions), useful reading, and recommendations (for example, for consultants) in the group. We’ve also shared ideas on actions we can take to improve our Stronger Foundations selfassessment scores.

Particularly during this time of fewer in-person events and networking opportunities, it has been valuable to build virtual relationships with other funders in similar organisations, even though our focus areas are different.

REFLECTING ON LEADERSHIP

As we have continued to meet, and become more aware of the large number of family foundations and the common issues and challenges we face, we have become more curious about this particular type of foundation.

We therefore worked with ACF to design and issue a survey of family foundations to find out more about this large but under-researched group in the UK. We also ran a session at ACF’s annual conference, with the aim of sharing our experience of coming together as a community of practice.

The conference theme was ‘Courage: foundation leadership in the next decade’. Essentially, courage is the willingness to act against, or set aside, our own self-interest – not necessarily just on one occasion, but perhaps repeatedly, persistently, for the long term.

Good leadership requires courage –particularly when it comes to challenging ourselves, and being open to challenge, in relation to the great power we hold and the limited accountability we have in foundations.

For trustees and directors of family foundations, ACF’s Stronger Foundations provides a useful framework to reflect on what courageous leadership might look like for family foundations –particularly in relation to important and challenging issues such as equity, transparency and diversity.

Our conference session provided family foundations with an opportunity to start the discussion on some of these issues. We are keen to create more such opportunities for shared learning and are therefore establishing the ACF Family foundations network in 2023. Do come and join us.

If you are interested in setting up your own learning set, or in joining the Family foundation network, please email Aisling Johnston at LFT Charitable Trust: aisling@ LFTCharitabletrust.com or Daniela Lloyd- Williams at JAC Trust: daniela@jaclarktrust.org

L-R: Aisling Johnston, Caroline Marks, Felicity Mallam and Daniela LloydWilliams, getting ready to run their conference breakout session

LEARNING FROM OUR INTERNATIONAL PEERS

we share in tackling them. The forum was certainly one of hope, not helplessness and there was a common understanding that more is possible by building shared narratives and priorities.

Gemma Instrall, ACF's director of membership, shares learning from PEXforum 2022.

This summer I joined over 100 people representing 69 organisations from 20 countries at PEXforum in Istanbul. Together we explored the power of collaboration in philanthropy. PEXForum, this year co-hosted by Philea and Third Sector Foundation of Turkey, provides a dynamic space to create an identity for European philanthropy and build common ground to advance our ecosystem.

As a membership body, we at ACF have a duty to look up and out rather than down and in. I see our community of UK trusts, foundations and grant-making charities as part of a global philanthropic infrastructure and as we navigate complexity, we should ask ourselves: “Who are we adjacent to? Who do we intersect with? Who can we learn from and who can we support?”. In a changing and uncertain world this feels more urgent and important than ever.

At PEXforum, delegates were reminded of the scale of the challenges we face, but also of the solidarity and connection

The two rallying calls of the forum spoke directly to the challenges we face:

1) We cannot be petrified in the face of the climate crisis. The solutions to our planet’s fate transcend borders, sectors and philosophies and require synchronised efforts and working at unprecedented scale.

A rousing keynote by Indy Johar from Dark Matter Labs, did an excellent job of summarising the complexity in which foundations fund today and called for philanthropy to “whisper the future into being” as we navigate a decade of deep transition. He called for action on a scale of the Marshall Plan (the 1948 American initiative to provide foreign aid to Western Europe), with a role for civil society in everything from conservation to pioneering radical economic alternatives.

2) We cannot take civil society for granted. It was humbling and painful to hear personal stories from those working in philanthropy. In Turkey, organisations are bravely defending civic space as freedoms are restricted.

In Ukraine, there is an emerging and inspiring civil society that has spontaneously developed on the frontline of the war. Foundations across Europe play a catalytic role in this work to build solutions and bring hope.

SHARING EXPERIENCE FROM THE UK

After two years of virtual forums, all delegates were excited to connect face to face once again. For me this meant being able to make plans with organisations with whom we share members, so we can serve them more thoughtfully and collaboratively.

It also meant an opportunity to elevate the work of foundations in the UK. I was given a platform to speak about ACF’s Funders Collaborative Hub, presenting it as a simple, impactful and scalable platform, and inviting delegates to replicate this idea in their own geography.

I was also able to share the deep and reflective work on advancing racial justice being undertaken by UK foundations: from the pillars that emerged during our Stronger Foundations initiative, to members exploring their own origins of wealth and towards emerging collaborations to decolonise philanthropy. Sharing and hearing progress on this work challenges all of us to do better in leadership and learning roles around racial justice.

While continuing to unpack my learnings and connections from PEXforum, I look forward to exploring more opportunities for collaboration in the months to come and towards the forum 2024 in Rome.

Want to know more?

Visit PEXforum at philea.eu/ pexforum-2022-the-road-to-istanbul/

Illusatration credit: Mina Yanci Ibis

TEN TAKEAWAYS ABOUT COURAGE AND LEADERSHIP

At this year’s ACF conference our keynote speaker Professor Lucy Easthope spoke about courage: leadership in the next decade, from her perspective as a disaster recovery expert. Here are 10 points she highlighted in her speech.

1. Courageous leadership is really hard. Be prepared to feel uncomfortable – and to be challenged when you say no.

2. Bravery is to look beyond the immediate and be a great forecaster.

3. Courageous leadership can also be wrongly seen as being slightly reckless, whereas it’s actually well-considered.

4. Good decision-makers are not honed in disasters. In disasters what we see are people making rushed, reactive decisions. The danger can be that you trundle along in the good times, not really paying much attention to business continuity. Keep your disaster planning fresh, ready for when needed.

5. A high performing team needs a diverse mix of skills and styles and to include that “wildcard” person to say “what if” and “have you thought about?”

6. Really good boards are really well informed. They look at things from all kinds of perspectives and do their research from a rich mix of sources.

7. Accept that not all altruism is ‘good help’. Challenge your actions. It might be perceived as very cynical to say but donating items to charities, rather than money, while generous can create dependencies that cause longer term problems – including people being vulnerable to abandonment when support tails off.

8. Ask yourself: “Am I propping up inequalities rather than reducing them?” Within this, language is important: always, of course, be respectful, never demeaning.

9. Recognise your own resilience levels and emotional well-being, and that of others. We are all disaster survivors to some extent after the Covid-19 pandemic experience. Be aware of when you and others are tired, need a rest or a change, a sabbatical. Taking time out doesn’t need to spell the end of something, you can always come back.

10.For trusts and foundations, and all organisations, a strong sense of vision and purpose is vital. That way you can’t be derailed. Stick to your vision.

Professor Easthope is a leading authority on recovering from disaster. She is a professor in practice of risk and hazard at the University of Durham where she co-founded the After Disaster Network, fellow in mass fatalities and pandemics at the Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and a research associate at the Joint Centre for Disaster Research, Massey University, New Zealand. She has advised government departments, corporations, emergency and health services and charities throughout her career. Her book When the Dust Settles is a Sunday Times bestseller.

NETWORK SPOTLIGHT: ECONOMIC JUSTICE NETWORK

Each issue we shine a light on one of our member networks and the work they do. This time we introduce the Economic justice network, which is convened by Danielle Walker Palmour, director of Friends Provident Foundation.

the Aftermath of Empire and Hannah Stranger-Jones, director of impact and influence, UnLtd. They explored how the seeds of economic issues we are experiencing today were sown at the very beginning of Britain’s colonial history. They also considered how our mindsets, economic policies and understandings of ourselves are influenced by the stories we tell ourselves.

of our value. At each meeting, we think about future topics. Those currently being considered for 2023 include: what a fair tax system might look like, tackling the roots of poverty, and thinking about growth and health inequalities. If you're an ACF member, join us.

To find out more about the Economic justice network, please email acf@acf.org.uk

The Economic justice network is ACF’s newest network where members can hear from leading thinkers, policymakers and activists in the dynamic field of economics and economic justice. We learn together about how the economy works and its links to the many social and environmental issues that we as grant-makers, advocates and investors address in our programmes. We also share insights from member programmes related to creating vibrant local, national and global economies that help people and planet to thrive.

Our two meetings so far have been well attended. In March, we welcomed Kate Raworth, economist and author of the best-selling Doughnut Economics This was an opportunity to explore how economic thinking and assumptions pervade all kinds of social interactions with Fatima Iftikhar of Economy (ecnmy. org), a charity focusing on the public understanding of economics.

Our second meeting in July was titled ‘Decolonising economics and philanthropy?’. Ayeisha Thomas-Smith, interim director at the New Economy Organisers Network (NEON), was in conversation with Dr Kojo Koram, lecturer in law at Birkbeck and author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and

Our most recent get together was a joint meeting with the Place-based funding network to consider the importance of place in economic policy, particularly the “levelling up” agenda. We were joined by Andy Haldane, previously chief economist at the Bank of England who was invited by the government to lead the development of the levelling up policy framework. Andy is now the CEO of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), thought leaders in local and national policy innovation. We also heard from Kathleen Kelly, director of LocalMotion, a funder collaborative that is working with communities to address issues that matter to them in their localities; as well as Carrina Gaffney of Lankelly Chase Foundation, who represents the foundation in their role in supporting work in communities in Manchester.

The meeting was a rich exchange of questions, viewpoints and insights from those working at the national and local level to make lasting changes in how communities build economic and social resilience. Something that emerged from the discussion is the “secret sauce” that foundations can bring to collaboration with other sectors with an emphasis on taking the time to build trust with communities; not having a fixed position or being part of the scramble for resources can be an important part

COST OF LIVING EVENTS AND NETWORK MEETINGS

This autumn, our members talked extensively about the cost of living crisis and its impact on on the communities and causes they support.

Topics have included:

• The impact of the cost of living crisis on women and girls (Violence against women and girls network)

• Cost of living crisis – how can small funders respond? (Smaller funders’ network)

• Practical responses to the cost of living crisis (Tackling poverty network)

Look out for future events at acf.org.uk/events

EVENTS, LEARNING AND NETWORKS IN 2023

Our events are here to support foundations and grant-makers in their work. We welcome staff and trustees from organisations across the UK to all our events and activities. Find out more at acf.org.uk/events

Learning events

Our programme of short courses is designed for foundations and grant-making charities. Our events create a space for peer discussion, connection with sector experts and learning from leading practitioners in the field.

Investment seminars

Our investment seminars are there to help you realise the full potential of your investment assets to achieve your charitable objectives. They explore responsible, sustainable and impact-driven investment. Each event features peer learning led by senior foundation practitioners and expert input from our partners – Cazenove, CCLA, Mercer and Ruffer. Investment seminars are open to trustees and senior staff at endowed foundations and are suitable for those new to investment or with experience.

For more information about investment seminars, please email acf@acf.org.uk

Social Impact Investors Group (SIIG)

A series of events run by our SIIG for foundations interested in social impact investing (making investments which deliver both a financial return and social impact). These jargon-free events explore issues such as impact reporting, accounting for social investments, and providing flexible, patient investment for

social purpose organisations. For more information about SIIG events, please email gail@acf.org.uk

Member networks

Our 14 member networks provide members with an opportunity to connect with colleagues, discuss a variety of topics and share good practice and learning. Networks meet two or three times a year online, and any ACF member is welcome to attend even if they are not subscribed to the network. Members can subscribe to any number of networks free of charge to receive meeting communications and to view and post articles and notices on the networks’ online forums.

To subscribe to a network, visit acf.org.uk/ member-networks and click on ‘Access member networks’.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE A NETWORK CONVENOR IN 2023?

We’re looking for people to join us as volunteer network convenors.

Convenors play a vital role in getting ACF members together to share knowledge and experience through our networks across the UK.

What does a network convenor do?

• Plan and facilitate up to three network meetings a year

• Use your knowledge of the topic to develop meetings that meet the needs of ACF members

• Engage high quality speakers to present at network meetings

• Provide network meeting descriptions to advertise the meetings and create short write ups afterwards

How long is the commitment?

Most people join us as volunteer network convenors for two years, with a minimum commitment of one year.

We are currently recruiting convenors for these networks:

• Asylum, refugee and migration

• Corporate foundations

• Economic justice

• Mental health

• Violence against women and girls

To find out more or to apply, please email us at acf@acf.org.uk

Thank you

Our thanks to those convenors who are stepping down shortly. Your contribution is much appreciated.

Specialist investment advice. Highly rated managers. Governance and reputation control.

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.

ABOUT YOUR ACF MEMBERSHIP

As an ACF member, your organisation is part of our fantastic community of more than 440 foundations and grant-makers from across the UK.

ACF membership offers connection, collaboration and learning from peers and experts. We support organisations and individuals who want to enhance their knowledge of good practice in grantmaking, access a platform for sharing experience and expertise and be kept informed of policy and regulatory issues affecting foundations. We do this to help foundations be ambitious and effective in the way they use their resources for social good.

Here's a reminder of what we do and the exclusive benefits you receive as an ACF member.

Connecting and collaborating

• Exclusive access to 14 member-led networks on areas of funding interest or grant-making practice

• Get involved with our policy and advocacy work through the Members’ Policy Forum and programmes such as Stronger Foundations and Foundation

Giving Trends

Learning and events

• Discounted fees for learning and events programme

• Significant discount on tickets for our annual conference – the UK’s largest trust and foundation sector event of the year

Research and resources

• Digital newsletters and magazine – packed with sector news, key information UK foundations need to know about changes in charity regulation and shared member experiences

• Briefings on key policy issues affecting trusts and foundations, such as safeguarding, governance and fraud guidance

• Free copies of our publications and research, which provide vital reference material and summarise current thinking.

For a full list of member benefits visit acf.org.uk/about/membership

“We find our ACF membership hugely valuable and a crucial part of our work. We regularly take part in a variety of events, learning and networks. The Funders Collaborative Hub, for example, has offered an effective way of presenting new funding opportunities to our trustees and Stronger Foundations is a useful guide for developing our foundation.”

Rothschild Foundation

CONTACT US

If you have any questions about your membership, please contact Natasha Robinson at membership@acf. org.uk

RECOMMEND US

Do you know a new foundation looking to develop its network in the sector, or an organisation keen to expand its knowledge? Put them in touch with Natasha Robinson at membership@acf. org.uk

MAKE THE MOST

As a member of ACF, everyone in your organisation can register to access the members’ only content on our website acf.org.uk. Once registered, you can manage communications, download our publications, book events and network with peers.

Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF) is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales, company registration number: 5190466.

Registered charity number: 1105412.

Registered office: ACF, Fourth Floor, 28 Commercial Street, London E1 6LS.

Telephone: 020 7255 4499

Email: acf@acf.org.uk

Website: acf.org.uk

Articles in Trust & Foundation News are copyright to the author and ACF. We are happy for them to be reproduced free of charge, but the author and source should be acknowledged. Views expressed in articles are not necessarily those of the ACF.

Editors : Judith Higgin, Sarah Myers

Designer : Tom Poslett

Conference photography: Polly Hancock

ACF contributors: Carol Mack OBE, Gemma Instrall, Inês Ribeiro and Natasha Robinson

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