Introduction

Paul Hamlyn was an entrepreneurial publisher and philanthropist, committed to offering new opportunities and experiences for less fortunate members of society. During his lifetime, and because of his experiences, he had a particular interest in social justice, challenging prejudice and opening up the arts and education to everyone, but particularly to young people.

In 1987 he established the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for general charitable purposes. Since then, we have continuously supported charitable activities that have enabled individuals, particularly children and young people, to experience a better quality of life.

Paul died in August 2001, but his magnificent bequest enables us to be independent and bold in honouring his beliefs and aims. Our first formal plan was produced for the three years from 2003–06. The next ran for eight years to 2014, during which we celebrated 25 years as a grant-maker. We are now in a position to introduce our next strategy, which takes us forward from 2015. It is informed by feedback from a consultation exercise, learning from our past approaches and with a clear understanding of the environment in which we are now operating.

At the heart of our endeavours is the intention to make a difference to people’s lives, and we have decided to focus our effort and resources in areas where we believe we can have the greatest impact. As an independent, endowed foundation, we have been able, and have chosen, to support work which others found challenging, or which required long‑term solutions. This will continue to be important to us.

We have identified six strategic priorities, described in this document, relating to changes we wish to see in the UK. Each builds on our previous experience, but has been identified for this strategy because of current need, perhaps because in economically challenging times, it has been hard to attract funding to their cause or because the context is a complex one that requires a long-term approach to have real effect. And it might simply be that talented individuals are finding it increasingly difficult to attract funding for an unproven, but great idea.

Of course, the Foundation does not, in itself, deliver change. Our most important partners are the organisations and individuals whom we fund and whose work results in a better quality of life for those they serve. Our role is not to manage their programmes or stand in their way, but we can, when appropriate, offer support and advice, and to do so, we value the contribution of the people who work for the Foundation – staff, advisors and trustees – all of whom bring experience and skills to our activities.

We are making a commitment in this strategy to learn from the work we support, and to share our knowledge and understanding widely and effectively. We champion transparency across the philanthropic sector and have taken the 360 degree giving pledge to publish information on all our grants in an accessible format. But we recognise that we need to do much more than that – to become truly reflective and communicative about the work we support, why we support it, and its impact on individuals and communities.