Director's report

Continuity and change

The main features of our grant-making programmes are detailed elsewhere in this Yearbook. As the chair’s statement indicates, this has been a year of continuity and change; of initiatives pursued and new plans laid.

This Yearbook charts an eventful year, notable both for the continued work of the Foundation’s range of grants programmes and Special Initiatives, and the steps taken towards developing a new strategy. This juxtaposition of ‘business as usual’ with reflection on the past and contemplation of a different future creates challenges for any organisation.

Through its Special Initiatives the Foundation gets closely involved in the delivery of work. Several Special Initiatives reached important points during the past year. Within the Social Justice programme, the Right Here initiative on young people’s mental health, delivered in partnership with the Mental Health Foundation, concluded its work with four local projects around the UK. The final evaluation is due later this year but there is already a strong sense that the initiative has had an impact and leaves a lasting legacy for the local participants and for wider practices.

Within the Arts programme, we agreed a second allocation of support for the Breakthrough Fund, an initiative that provides support to individual ‘cultural entrepreneurs’ at key moments in their careers. The fund is distinctive for its selection processes and the flexible funding it provides. Of course, the Foundation has a long history of supporting individuals within the arts. This coming year will see the 20th anniversary of the Awards for Artists, through which PHF has recognised individual artists and provided a level of no-strings funding that is rare and valued.

Elsewhere, the Foundation continues to support schools and universities through initiatives within its Education and Learning programme. Several of these initiatives are long-standing, most notably Musical Futures.

In the India programme, this was the first year of a new strategy with a focus on ‘lost childhoods’ and the lives of so-called railway children. In Bhopal in February we took the first steps towards bringing together organisations to share experiences, learn from each other and consider how this difficult problem might be tackled more effectively.

Strategy review

Its new strategy makes the Foundation’s India programme different from its work in the UK. During this year we began the tough thinking about developing a new strategy for the other programmes. This has included open conversations with staff, trustees and advisors.

We wanted to get as many people as possible involved with a new strategy, on the basis that the choices we make can only be as good as the ideas we have to choose from. To this end, we invited people to complete the statement ‘PHF should…’. We published a number of the contributions on a blog during the year 1. Many good and provocative ideas surfaced through this device.

The mechanism served a further purpose of signalling openness. The Foundation has a reputation for being open, but it can build on and extend that. How we think, how we learn, how we assess – if it becomes increasingly open on these fronts, this will help people to apply to the Foundation for funding and provide greater opportunities to influence behaviour.

PHF was one of the first UK foundations to commission the US-based Center for Effective Philanthropy to undertake a Grantee Perception Report (GPR). Our second GPR and, also, an Applicant Perception Report (APR) both reported this year. These mark PHF out as the first UK foundation to undertake the GPR twice and the first to undertake an APR 2.

The results of these surveys are helpful inputs into a new strategy. A key feature of the GPR results was a call from grantees for PHF to do more to bring them together to share lessons and insights. This type of activity will feature strongly as an element of a new strategy. The APR highlighted the need to do more to explain why applications are rejected, and we took steps to improve feedback to unsuccessful applicants.

Managing change

As well as change, it is important to stress the elements of continuity in a future strategy. The Foundation has deep roots in the areas it funds and in the values of its founder, Paul Hamlyn. Once the Foundation has agreed the details of a new strategy, these changes will be explained clearly to all stakeholders and introduced thoughtfully, so as to minimise any disruption or burden on organisations applying for funding.

Maintaining an ambitious programme of grant- making and Special Initiatives alongside thinking about and planning for a new strategy is a tall order. Credit for managing this lies with the staff, supported by trustees. I would also like to record thanks to the numerous advisors and consultants to the Foundation. Their input is enormously valuable as they help steer discussions and decisions. During the past year there were some changes to the advisors on the Education and Learning Programme Committee, with Vanessa Wiseman stepping down and both Anita Kerwin-Nye and Alasdair Macdonald joining.

Alongside its endowment, the Foundation’s people and the relationships they manage are its main strengths. The Foundation is now past its 25th year. It can prepare for the future confident in its values and strengths.

Martin Brookes
Director (to July 2014)

Footnotes