The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation is one of the UK’s leading independent and most prestigious grant-making Trusts, which has been awarding grants for in excess of 60 years. In 2021 the Foundation undertook a review of its grant-making priorities and announced a new focus on supporting the following areas:
The Foundation wants to ensure that our natural world is restored and protected and that people benefit from that recovery. Working with others, Esmee Fairbairn will contribute to the following 3 key impact goals:
o Clean and healthy freshwater.
o Preserved and improved species health and habitats, and
o Sustainable and ethical food.
Within these 3 key goals, the Foundation wants to support projects that are concerned with:
o Fishing in tandem with nature.
o Freshwater.
o Nature friendly farming.
o Peat, and
o Space for Nature.
The Foundation aims to contribute to a socially just and anti-racist society, where people have their rights protected, as well as the opportunity to speak and be heard, and the freedom to express their creativity. It is particularly keen to support organisations led by the people they serve. The Foundation’s 3 key goals under this priority are:
o Improved systems, policy and practice.
o Organisations are strengthened to use their power to tackle systemic injustice and inequity, and
o Organisations work together and build movements to tackle systemic injustice and inequity.
Within these overarching goals, the Foundation currently wants to focus on projects in the following areas:
o Arts and Creativity Making Change.
o Children and Young People’s Rights.
o Gender justice.
o Migrant justice, and
o Racial justice.
3. Creative, Confident Communities
The Foundation wants to strengthen the bonds in communities, helping local people to build vibrant, confident places where they can fulfil their creative, human and economic potential. Places where the local economy works better for the people who live there, where there is equality of access to arts and culture, and where communities are at the heart of change. Its 3 main goals under this priority are:
o Communities use their power to make change happen.
o Culture and creativity build thriving communities, and
o Local economies work better for the people who live there
The Foundation’s priorities under these goals are presently project that contribute to:
o Communities working together for change.
o Community ownership and regeneration.
o Creativity transforming lives, and
o Culture restoring communities.
A wide range of charitable organisations may apply for a grant, which can be for core costs, project costs and /or are unrestricted, providing the applying organisation is properly constituted and has an annual turnover of at least £100,000.
Applicants should state the level of grant they require. Awards, which are for revenue costs (the Foundation does not support capital projects), generally start at £30,000 and are for 3 or more years.
Funding is not available for:
o Academic research unless it can demonstrate real potential for practical outcomes.
o Capital costs including building work, renovations, and equipment (the exclusion applies to grants only, social investments can be made for these).
o Healthcare with a clinical basis, including medical research, hospices, counselling and therapy, arts therapy, education about and treatment for drug and alcohol misuse.
o Individuals.
o Organisations with a regular annual turnover of less than £100,000.
o Organisations without at least three non-executive trustees or directors.
o The promotion of religion.
o Work that does not have a direct benefit in the UK.
o Work that is not legally charitable, or
o Work that is primarily the responsibility of statutory authorities.
To apply, eligible applicants should follow the process below:
1. Complete the Eligibility Quiz (scroll down the page) on the Foundation’s website.
2. Eligible organisations may then submit a 100-word Expression of Interest.
3. Applicants successful at the Expression of Interest stage (often following a discussion with a representative of the Foundation) may then be invited to submit a Full Application.
Further in formation, guidance, Frequently Asked Questions and the Eligibility Quiz can be found on the Foundation’s website.
