Our 2023 Annual Report and Accounts gives an overview of our funding, investments and operations during the year.
One of the main privileges as a Foundation is our ability to learn from and work alongside the very best of people, communities and organisations dedicated to economic, social and environmental justice. We can provide enabling or catalytic support, we can absorb some of the risk and we can help in amplifying their work, but the expertise, bravery and commitment is theirs.
Dame Caroline Mason CBE, Chief Executive
In a year of rising costs and increasing challenges, we're pleased to be able to report that it was the year of Esmée Fairbairn Foundation’s highest ever funding spend. We also extended our strategy to 2027, making a longer term commitment to the systemic change needed for our funding priorities.
Funding in 2023
Over the year, we provided £57.3m in grants, which includes £48.3m in 227 main grants to 222 remarkable organisations and initiatives in the UK, and £7.4m for a Cost of Living Award to many of the organisations we support, with no application process.
Our work using social investment as a mechanism to support new impact-first business and investment models has grown to £12.9m, the most we have ever approved in one year since our first investment in 1999. We also made two new impact investments, totalling £2m.
To support our strategy, we have been able to use our Tools budget for smaller but, sometimes, critical interventions such as commissioning research, and resources for convening and collaborating.
Chart 1 shows a breakdown of our funding by strategic aim and funding type, and includes our infrastructure support shown as 'A Sector Fit for the Future'. You can see a more detailed breakdown along with a listing of grants, social and impact investments in our Annual Report and Accounts.
We remain committed to open and trusting funding practice through our long-term, unrestricted grants and flexible approach to reporting. Of our main grants last year, 70% were for core or unrestricted costs, and 66% were for three years or longer.
For more information about the grants we awarded including by type of support, size of award and length of term, alongside key numbers about the application process, see our grant funding overview.
Our commitments to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and tackling climate change
Our annual report includes DEI data on the leadership of the organisations we awarded grants to across the year as well as the communities the work supports. See our report, Who our funding is reaching 2023, for an overview of the data we gathered. You can also find our annual updates about actions we have taken to progress DEI and the diversity data of Esmée's people.
There is also a summary of actions we've taken towards our work to address the causes and impacts of climate change, with more detail found in our Funder Commitment on Climate Change update.
Our investments
Our main investment portfolio performed well in a very difficult economic context. Performance overall for 2023 was 2.8% bringing our endowment to £1.286bn.
In 2023, we changed the Terms of Reference and our Investment Policy Statement to create dual objectives for our portfolio going forward: financial return and sustainability. This recognises both the future risks of unsustainable investments but also the future opportunities in emerging and sustainable business models.
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