About us

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Founded in 1961, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is one of the UK’s largest independent funders.

In 2022, we provided £36.2m in grant funding towards a wide range of work in support of our three main aims: to improve Our Natural World, secure A Fairer Future and nurture Creative, Confident Communities. We also have a £45m allocation to social investments and a £10m allocation to impact investments. Our funds are generated by our investment portfolio.

Learn more about our strategy

Celebrating 60 years of Esmée

In 2021, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation turned 60. We wanted to take some time to reflect over the last 60 years, and to celebrate the breadth of our work and all that we have achieved working with so many brilliant people and partners.

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Meet our people

Who's who at Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. Meet our staff and trustees.

Our people
  • National Theatre Connections Festival at Derby Theatre. Credit Chris Webb # 2 - David Brownlee.jpg

    Our values

    Our organisational values act as a guide for staff and trustees about how we work at Esmée.

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  • The FiELD, East London Dance

    Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

    Our commitments on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as an organisation and through our work.

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    Climate Change

    Read about our commitment to addressing the causes and impacts of climate change.

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  • Zoielogic Dance Theatre

    Our funding data

    We publish all our grants and social investments on 360Giving, an initiative that aims to help UK funders share their data in an open and standard format online.

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    Our investments

    Our approach to investing, how we invest and an overview of our investments.

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    Strategy

    Information about our strategic plan including our impact goals and the outcomes we hope to achieve by 2030. We also outline how we will work in support of our mission.

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    Governance

    Esmée is governed by a Board of Trustees who meet six times each year to set and oversee the delivery of the Foundation’s strategy. We also have a number of Trustee committees, which support our work throughout the year.

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    Open and trusting grant-making

    Learn about our commitments to open and trusting grant-making, which is part of a campaign launched by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR).

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    Working for Esmée

    Our vision is for Esmée to have a diverse team of staff and Trustees – with the skills, knowledge, experience, networks and insights required to deliver our strategic plan.

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Latest

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    21 November 2023

    Using social investment to improve our natural world

    Sarah Hedley, Esmée’s Social Investment Portfolio Manager, writes about our social investment plans to improve our natural world. This is part of a series of blogs on how our social investment strategy will contribute to Esmée’s mission.

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  • Company Three-WHEN_THIS_IS_OVER_107.jpg

    Changing how we fund youth-led culture and creativity

    We are changing how we fund youth-led culture and creativity and plan to share our plans for a new funding programme in the New Year. To prepare, we will close to applications towards youth-led culture and creativity at 5pm on 10 November 2023.

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  • Woodland Trust-Smithills Estate-Still

    Developing our social investment strategy to support our mission

    Jonny Page, Esmée’s Head of Social and Impact Investment, outlines our plans for social investment and the opportunities it offers to support our mission.

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  • Spiderweb

    Testing a new approach to make New Connections

    We want to test a new approach to funding and are ringfencing £1.5m for New Connections funding to find and support organisations that could not, or would not, usually apply to Esmée. For the first phase in 2023 and 2024, we are starting with work led by and for communities experiencing racial inequity.

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