Chief Executive’s Report

When times are difficult and uncertain, what is the role of independent funders? At Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, we think it’s important to keep pushing for change for the future. The pandemic, rising cost of living, and the climate crisis are compounding long-standing problems for people and nature across the world. In the UK, the organisations Esmée funds have continued to respond and adapt to these crises, and in 2022 our Trustees decided to provide £7.4m1 in additional support to help them address the root causes of problems, so they don’t happen again, as well as to reimagine and build a better future.

2022 has been a year of transition and transformation for Esmée. When we first launched our strategy in 2020, we knew there could not be a return to business as usual, and that we needed to take time to determine what role we should play.

We temporarily closed to applications in A Fairer Future as we completed the development of our strategy, identifying five priority areas. We had to make some difficult choices, but we believe that by narrowing our focus, we can make a deeper and lasting impact. We’re grateful to everyone for their patience, and to all those who gave their valuable insights as part of the process.

During the year, we provided £36.2m2 (2021: £51.5m) in grant funding to over 1803 incredible organisations who share our goals. 64% of main grants awarded were for core or unrestricted costs. In addition, we committed £2.7m in social investments to 4 organisations and made our first impact investment to the Green Generation Fund, which invests into companies delivering solutions for more sustainable, healthy and ethical consumption.

In total, we also approved £743k through our dedicated Tools budget, which we use for activities where we are taking a more active role. Most of it was used for influencing work towards building the Our Natural World roadmap of activities , the Learning Programme supporting our Young People Leaving Care funding, and to develop our work with our Involving Young People Collective. Through Funding Plus, we made 72 small grants, totalling £490k, 86% of which was used for individual consultancy on areas including business planning and to develop diversity, equity and inclusion plans.

1 This funding was offered to most organisations we fund as a Cost of Living Uplift payment, and was awarded in January 2023.

2 Includes all grants (main grants, Funding Plus, exceptional grants and TASK grants).

3 Excludes organisations awarded a Funding Plus, exceptional or TASK grant.