Meet our team
Sarah Hedley
Sarah Hedley
Sarah is part of the social investment team, managing a portfolio of investments, developing new proposals, and supporting Esmée’s broader social investment work.
Before joining the Esmée, Sarah worked at the Stone Family Foundation supporting water and sanitation enterprises in Africa and Asia, and as a senior consultant at the charity think tank and consultancy, NPC.
You might be interested in
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25 May 2022Supporting a widespread transition to nature friendly farming
Laurence Scott, a Funding Manager in Esmée's Our Natural World team, writes about our support for nature friendly farming and how it can be part of a better food system that is positive for nature and communities.
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Review on children's social care in England published
The Independent Review of Children's Social Care led by Josh McAllister shared its final report this week. Read a summary of the proposals from our learning partner for our Young People Leaving Care funding, alongside a summary of responses from organisations we fund, and the Government's response.
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Our Annual Report and Accounts for 2021
Read our 2021 Annual Report, which gives an overview of our operations, funding and investments during 2021.
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Working towards a more diverse, inclusive and equitable environment sector
We know that we cannot address the climate and nature crises without also addressing injustice and inequity in the environment sector. In a new blog, we share what we’ve been doing to support a more diverse, inclusive and equitable environment sector.
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Our strategy for A Fairer Future – an update
Our A Fairer Future funding will now be closed to new applications until the autumn of 2022. We remain open to applications in Our Natural World and Creative, Confident Communities.
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Championing peat and restoring peatland at scale
Jenny Dadd, Funding Manager and Our Natural World Lead shares what we’ve been doing – working alongside our amazing partners – to champion peat as a climate superpower and restore peatland at scale.
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Our roadmap for improving our natural world – what more can we do?
Find out about the roadmap we have been working to for improving Our Natural World and how we are getting on as well as our plans for the coming year.
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Financing nature's recovery – the £43 billion question
In the second of our blogs on our roadmap for improving Our Natural World, Liam McAleese, Director of Our Natural World, shares what we’ve been doing to secure more money to finance nature’s recovery.
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Introducing our Involving Young People Collective’s newest change-makers
Kimberly Garande writes about her experience so far since joining Esmée’s Involving Young People Collective, and we also hear from the three other new young change-makers who have joined.
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Foundation Practice Rating shows we have more to do
We welcome the findings of the first Foundation Practice Rating report, which we think can support individual funders – including Esmée – to be more accountable, more transparent, and to make real progress on diversity, equity and inclusion.
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Funder Commitment on Climate Change: 2021 update
Read our 2021 update on our work towards the six goals of the Funder Commitment on Climate Change.
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Invitation to tender: Communications support for community-led freshwater campaigns
We are seeking a PR and Comms agency to support an informal network of community-led freshwater campaign groups who share our goal of improving and protecting freshwater environments, and whose voice and work are critical to achieving it.
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Our commitment and strategy to be net zero
We have made a commitment that our investment portfolio will be net zero in terms of carbon emissions by 2040 at the latest.
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Training opportunities with Funding Plus
We're in the process of developing a training programme for the year ahead as part of our Funding Plus support. The training will be available to organisations we fund, with dates confirmed by the end of March.
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Understanding impact in social investments
Understanding the impact of our social investments is critical for our learning and ensuring that we are an effective investor. In a new report, we outline how we assess the difference each social investment is intended to make, how we track its progress over time, and how that shapes our learning as an investor.
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Temporary closure to applications in A Fairer Future
As we develop our strategy for A Fairer Future, we will close to new applications - in funding priorities for A Fairer Future only - from January to May 2022. We remain open to applications in Our Natural World and Creative, Confident Communities.
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Environmental Finance and Learning Fund
Together with the Environmental Funders Network (EFN), we have launched a collaborative Environmental Finance and Learning Fund to help unlock significant new funding for nature recovery.
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Young People Leaving Care funding: Insights from our Learning Programme
As part of our support for organisations we fund through our Young People Leaving Care funding, we commissioned a Learning Programme to facilitate learning, collaboration and alliances between the funded organisations, and with Esmée ourselves. This Insights report outlines our approach and what we've learned so far.
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Supporting capacity and capability of organisations working to improve freshwater environments
To help us make progress towards our impact goal of ‘clean and healthy freshwater’, we commissioned the Cardiff University Water Research Institute to undertake a review of organisations working to restore the freshwater environment across the UK.
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Building an impact-first social investment strategy
We outline what our impact-first approach to social investment means in practice, and we share what we’ve learned, both the challenges and opportunities, from its evolution.
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Creative, Confident Communities: update to our strategy
As our work for Creative, Confident Communities has developed, we have updated our strategy to better reflect what we hope to achieve and the types of work we are looking to support.
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Insights from place-led funding
In a new report, we share learning from the place-led funding we’ve done over the past five years, which has informed and shaped our strategy in Creative, Confident Communities.
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Celebrating 60 years of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
In 2021, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation turns 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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LocalMotion Learning and Knowledge Exchange Partner: invitation for proposals
Together with a group of funders, we set up LocalMotion, a place-based initiative to support communities tackle deep-rooted causes of injustice in a more joined up, radical way. We are now looking to appoint a "Learning and Knowledge Exchange Partner". Read the Invitation for proposals to find out more.
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New £10m allocation for impact investing
We’re delighted to announce a new £10m allocation to impact investing, which will be in addition to our £45m allocation to social investment.
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Woodland Trust: restoring nature for people and planet
We visited Smithills Estate in Bolton to learn about the work the Woodland Trust is doing to restore nature for both people and the planet, and how doing so can also support the local economy.
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Lifelong Links: Building lasting relationships for young people in care
Lifelong Links by charity Family Rights Group is an exciting initiative that works with young people in care to help them reconnect and build lasting relationships with family members and other people who care about them. We went to Scotland to hear more about it.
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Plunkett Foundation: championing community ownership
We visited Siop Griffiths in Penygroes to learn how, with the support of Plunkett Foundation, they were able to develop their community owned café and shop, and help boost the confidence in the future of this rural village.
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We Belong: young migrants standing up
We met the team at We Belong, a relatively new charity that is run by, and for, young migrants in the UK. They engage young migrants in advocating for a fairer immigration system, and provide them with the tools to speak out about injustice and become agents of change.
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B-Arts: Using art and creativity to transform the community of Stoke
B-Arts is a participatory arts and theatre company based in Stoke. They use arts and creativity to improve lives and transform people's lives and the communities they live in.
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