Other Grants
Helen Hamlyn Trust
£2,000,000
The Helen Hamlyn Trust is an independent grant-making Trust. Its focus is on the initiation of medium- and long-term projects linked to the shared interests of Lady Hamlyn and her late husband Lord Hamlyn. The Trust’s core ethos is to develop innovative projects, which aim to effect lasting change, improve quality of life and create opportunity for the benefit of the public.
The Trust’s grant-making is in the fields of medicine, arts and culture, education and welfare, healthy ageing, international humanitarian affairs, and heritage and conservation in India. Small grants are made to local and regional charities up to £10,000.
The Trust establishes lasting relationships with leading organisations and individuals to enable new areas of work by creating connections between organisations, and introducing new ideas. This year, among other partners, the Trust has continued its work with Imperial College London, the Royal Marsden hospital, the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art (now enshrined within the RCA’s constitution in perpetuity), Moorfields Eye Hospital, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Opera House and York University. In India it has worked with INTACH on restoration projects in Goa and Rajasthan, and continues to support Cultural Development at Nagaur Fort. In the USA it works with the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.
New projects and developments this year include initiating the Setubal Music Festival, Portugal in partnership with the Municipality of Setubal – a festival programme bringing together young people from within the different ethnic communities through a music development programme.
Open Futures – askit, growit, cookit, filmit (www.openfutures. com) is the Trust’s flagship education programme. It is an effective skills- and enquiry-based learning programme for primary schools, and is having a significant effect in participating schools across England. This year The Open Futures Trust was established as a subsidiary Trust to support the programme’s dissemination to more schools. Open Futures continues to work in partnership with SAPERE, the UK charity for Philosophy for Children, the Royal Horticultural Society, the Focus on Food Campaign, and Andy Cameron, Creative Director, Weiden & Kennedy.
Evaluation by the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University clearly demonstrated the value of Open Futures’ approach to learning as part of the primary curriculum. Currently the programme continues to develop across 16 local authority areas and will be established in four new areas from September 2011. Participating schools are working to embed Open Futures into their core curriculum. filmit and askit continue to expand in India. Forty-six schools in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Goa and Hyderabad are participating by sharing cultural heritage through joint participatory film projects and enquiries between schools in the UK and India.
Pennies Foundation
£50,000
The Pennies Foundation channels money to charitable causes in the UK by collecting donations made from the rounded up pennies from consumers’ card transactions. In 2010/11 it secured partners including Domino’s Pizza and Travelodge, allowing for widespread, small-scale philanthropy through its ‘electronic charity box’.
Disasters Emergency Committee
£100,000
Large areas of Pakistan were stricken by flooding after an unusually severe monsoon in July 2010. Around 12 million people’s homes were destroyed or damaged and 20 million were internally displaced. Returning survivors continue to be affected by the long-term consequences of standing water, saturated soil and silt, making reconstruction difficult. Our donation will help DEC to support some of the worst affected people to rebuild their lives and communities, through the provision of new homes, safe water supplies, agricultural tools and small grants for businesses.