Strategic Aims
Over the next six years, we have three major and equally important aims. These are:
- Enabling people to experience and enjoy the arts
- Developing people’s education and learning
- Integrating marginalised young people who are at times of transition.
In addition, we have two related aims:
- Advancing through research the understanding of the relationships between the arts, education and learning and social change
- Developing the capacity of organisations and people who facilitate aims 1-3.
Finally, we also have a sixth aim. This is not a primary aim, but supports the other aims:
- Developing PHF itself to be an exemplar foundation, existing in perpetuity.
Programmes
We will deliver aims 1-5 mainly by establishing three partly over-lapping programmes for our work the UK: arts; education, learning and skills; social justice. In addition we will have a separate programme for our work in India. Within each programme we will have themes and priorities which over time may change.
The three UK programmes will comprise open grant-schemes and targeted, special initiatives. We will give more emphasis to the latter though we believe that the open grants schemes are important in enabling applicants to secure support for projects where the nature of their work may not be commonly known.
We intend that the awards made under the open grant schemes will, together with appropriate research and evaluation, inform our future special initiatives.
We want our awards to be significant in terms of the work of the organisation (or individual), or the particular part of their work we are supporting.
In addition to grant programmes, we will meet our aims partly through research, evaluation and communication.
We expect the work we support to have an impact at some of the following levels:
Aim 1: Enabling people to experience and enjoy the arts
Objective 1
To support innovative ways of increasing people’s experience and enjoyment of the arts
Over the next six years we intend to support the development and dissemination/diffusion of
new ideas to increase the experience and enjoyment of the arts by people of all ages. We
are interested in all art forms.
- By innovation we mean:
- Initial research into opportunities and problems to identify possible interventions
- Feasibility and/or pilot studies
- Setting up the first delivery of a ‘road tested’ idea
- Awards schemes to promote an issue
- Evaluation, sharing, learning
- Replication and scaling-up by the innovator
- The introduction of successful exemplary activities to areas which lack experience of
innovation.
Whilst we are interested in innovation concerning the experience and enjoyment of people of
all ages, we are particularly interested in children and young people up to 25 years old.
Aim 2: Developing People’s Education & Learning
Objective 2
To support innovative ways of increasing people’s education and
learning
Over the next six years, we intend to support the development and dissemination and
diffusion of new ideas that work in improving education and increasing the learning of people of all ages. The type of innovation we may support is the same as in Aim 1:
Whilst we are interested in innovation concerning increasing the education and learning of people of all ages, we are particularly interested in children and young people up to 25 years old. We will often support work with adult parents or carers of, or adults who work with, children and young people as we believe that inter-generational experiences can be particularly relevant.
Aim 3: Integrating marginalised young people who are at times of transition
We believe in providing opportunities for marginalised individuals to become integrated. We are solely concerned with younger people up to the age of 30 who are at a time of transition because of their own circumstances (e.g. leaving care or prison or settling in a new community) or changes to the cultural environment in which they live (e.g. traditional white working class neighbourhoods in refugee dispersal areas).
We see integration as a two-way process in which society at large and other communities adapt, understand and benefit.
Objective 3.1
To ensure that marginalised people have their voices heard
Objective 3.2
To ensure their fuller participation in society
Objective 3.3
To secure strong relations within their communities and between their communities and other communities
Objective 3.4
To foster respect for, and understanding of, differences of various communities within our society
Over the next six years, we intend to:
- Support arts or education, learning and skills based activities to achieve the above objectives in relation to marginalised young people who are at times of transition.
- Support other types of activity under current and future special initiatives.
We will describe this as a social justice programme, and while new for the PHF, it builds on past activity. We believe that arts and education and learning are effective in tackling social injustice. The programme is experimental, and we will give particular weight to evaluation in this programme to assess the impact of arts and education and learning-based interventions.
Aim 4: Advance through research the understanding of the relationships between the arts, education and learning and social change
We are particularly interested in understanding the relationships between arts, education and learning and social change. There is comparatively little understanding of how to innovate effectively to achieve social change. We are committed to putting research into practice.
Over the next six years, we intend to:
Objective 4.1
Advance the understanding of how participation in the arts contributes to education and the acquisition of learning and vice-versa
Objective 4.2
Advance the understanding of how the arts and/or education and learning effect social change
Objective 4.3
Advance the understanding of how to innovate to secure social change
Objective 4.4
Develop a research strategy for PHF
We do not plan to fund stand alone research in response to applications made under open grant schemes, but may support research which is an integrated part of a wider activity. Sometimes we will make grants for stand alone research where this is commissioned by PHF. We may fund research under special initiatives. We will also meet this aim through research carried out directly by PHF.
Aim 5: Developing the capacity of organisations, groups and individuals who facilitate Aims 1-3
To achieve our aims, we will work through other organisations, groups and individuals. They need to be effective at their work, and adaptable to changing circumstances.
Objective 5.1
To improve the capacity of organisations, groups and individuals to achieve their aims and objectives in a more effective and sustainable fashion.
- Over the next six years, we will:
- Continue to support individuals at critical ‘turning points’ in their work
- Continue to support innovation in training and development
- Support individuals working in organisations in roles which are catalysts for radical change of that organisation
- Develop and support integrated models of organisational and financial stability, programme quality and growth to improve performance and impact.
Aim 6: Developing PHF to be an exemplar foundation, existing in perpetuity
To achieve our aims we are committed to improving our organisation and operations.
Objective 6.1
To adopt investment and financial strategies to achieve a secure level of funding to support our mission, given our aim to be a perpetual foundation
We will maintain a balance between the long-term and the short-term, and provide flexibility to respond to new opportunities. We will:
- Continue to develop and implement an investment strategy to realise our financial and investment objectives
- Continue to plan financially to provide stability and enable us to be flexible in supporting new opportunities
Objective 6.2
To ensure our staff, processes and offices effectively support the delivery of our aims, we will:
- Continue the review of our investment processes initiated by the Finance Director
- Continue to develop our human resources strategy to support effective recruitment, retention and training development and performance of our staff
- Continue to apply firm control to our internal operating support costs
- Continue to develop the use of management information systems
- Continue to improve our operational and financial planning and risk management
- Develop a systematic approach to understanding, assessing, monitoring and evaluating the outputs and outcomes of the activities we support
- Establish an evaluation regime which enables us to measure our own organizational performance and the effectiveness of our grant programmes
- Enable more transactions to be facilitated electronically
- Move to premises within London’s central zone which are in line with our values and which contribute to meeting our aims and objectives
Objective 6.3
To promote to key audiences the importance and outcomes of the work we fund and the activity we undertake, and increase awareness of PHF.
We will:
- Develop a Communications Strategy to meet our strategic aims more effectively
- Develop our website(s) and other communication tools to enable more knowledge creation and knowledge sharing with and between our partners and grantees.
Objective 6.4
To support and encourage grant making foundations and philanthropy
We believe that grant-making foundations have an important role in society because of their independence and flexibility. Over the next six years we will, mainly through the contributions of the time of the Foundation’s staff, advisers and trustees rather than through grant-making, continue to:
- support organisations which have a constructive influence on the law and public policy affecting grant-making charities
- argue for appropriate regulation and accountability of those charities which do not fundraise or which have a “family” aspect to their nature
- share our experiences with other grant-makers and learn from them