Our Approach
As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, a Philanthropy Framework review is undertaken every five years to evaluate our progress against objectives and shape our philanthropic work in line with our guiding principles – to put our independence and longevity to proactive use and deliver measured outputs leading to clear outcomes.
For our 2023-2028 Philanthropy Framework, we have developed consistent impact measures for all our grantmaking programmes, which aim to:
- Improve people’s lives
- Strengthen organisations of the people supported
- Contribute to societal change
As a funder, impact measures allow us to see the progress made and what is adding value in different sectors and communities across our programmes. We report on our impact annually in our Annual Review.
Funder Plus
Our Philanthropy Framework goes beyond supporting our grantholders financially. We also support the organisations we fund to become stronger and more resilient by providing access to training and support. We work with a number of strategic partners across our programmes to achieve this, including the Media Trust and the Cranfield Trust.
Evaluation and Research
We work with leading evaluation, research and learning partners across our funding programmes to inform our Insights & Learnings and future funding priorities.
Relational networking
We build value added relationships and trust-based relationships with our grantees during application and grant duration, through a high-engagement formal and informal approach that provides additional support to organisations and their teams.
We are also engaged on a peer and industry level, collaboratively working to build networks that can best support our grantees and inform our grantmaking.
We also support our historic links with the Company’s Associated Schools and Colleges, Almshouses and Sheltered Housing and church livings.
IVAR
We are committed to open and trusting grantmaking and being a flexible funder for the organisations we support.
We are delighted to join a community of funders and are proud to have signed a pledge to open and trusting grantmaking, a campaign coordinated by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR).
Our 8 commitments to open and trusting grantmaking
Living wage
We are proud to be a living wage employer, paying employees the real living wage, and a Living Wage Funder.