The UK's charitable trusts and foundations have a unique role to play in responding to the climate and nature crises. I'm looking forward to running a session exploring this with colleagues at the Association of Charitable Foundations Leaders Forum in September. To help me prepare, I'd welcome your thoughts on a couple of things: 💭 What do you think is the most important or distinctive contribution that trusts and foundations generally - not just environmentally-focused funders - can make in tackling the climate and nature crises? 🤝 What would be a good thing for UK leaders of trusts and foundations to *collaborate* on in relation to this unique role our organisations can play? Is there a problem could we try to solve together that would unlock our potential? Maybe a tool we could develop to enable more confident action? Ideas, experiences, comments all welcome!
Trusts and foundations are unique! You, of course, already know this but there is a meaningful contribution that only trusts and foundations can make in rising to the challenges of the climate and nature emergency, whatever their charitable mission and field of expertise. Come and explore this contribution at one of our ten member-designed collaboration centres (facilitated discussions) at the #ACFLeadersForum24. This one was designed by Nick Addington, chief executive of the William Grant Foundation*. He will also be facilitating the session. Find out more about all our collaboration centres here: https://lnkd.in/eNfQctzP *𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘈𝘊𝘍 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 SCVO (Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations) 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴. 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘕𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥: “𝘞𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘴𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦-𝘢𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 – 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 – 𝘴𝘰 𝘸𝘦’𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘤𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘧𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘚𝘊𝘝𝘖 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘤𝘰𝘵𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥’𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘭𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.”
Duncan W Wallace
3mo
Hi nick, here are my responses 1) mostly we we can contribute how to 'think global and act local ' We are at the cutting edge of the compassionate and wellbeing economy. (Sarah Davidson CB chapter 9 of Adam Smith's second book). We have democracy hardwired into our governance and so many of us are community led. These features provide great strengths (as well as complex weaknesses in an economy that doesn't understand the worth of trusts and foundations) Your second question is harder and not easy to tap away on my phone replying.. 2) Yes collaborative responses to the just transition we are all engaged in is central. There are many areas of policy than need to change. Lauren Brook Peter Wooding Julie Christie Mark Ballard Chris Stanley I personally would collaborate around what is means to be member led and community led. In my opinion in British society we don't have a good understanding and experience of being members and membership led structures. In private business there are some major cooperatives. Trusts and foundations know lots about being member led. Why I pick this generic area is that we can only go through climate mitigation or climate crisis repair with a huge amount of diverse and fast actions.
Yasmin Ahammad
3mo
Hi Nick, these are good questions! Here are some thoughts based on what we've learned at Impatience Earth: 1) Trusts and foundations have the huge advantage of being able to deploy funds much faster and flexibly than say government or corporations; invest in solutions, leaders and communities that often get overlooked; and fund longer term and on a basis of trust with its grantee partners. 2) It’s hard to propose a single solution or approach that would unlock funders’ potential and impact on climate, but committing to learn about and invest in deeper systems change would be a start; ceding more power and decision making to grantee partners who are doing the work; and funding with justice and equity at the heart of their approach. We're also running a collaboration centre at the conference (talking to boards about the climate and nature crisis) so hope to meet you there!
Appreciate you asking the question Nick, and I'm assuming you're asking it of the sector in general (rather than asking funders). I'm checking as I'm a bit allergic to it being said that trusts and foundations are unique, or indeed that they have a unique role to play. More important, I'd argue, that the views, insights and priorities of the field they're working in are collected, curated and used to set ALL trusts' and foundations' priorities, different though they may be. I know you're committed to working in the open, and working with the field, so all I'm saying is I'd love to see more of this - gathering the collective intelligence of the field. And less uniqueness and individualism among foundations, because frankly why does that matter?!