About us
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Founded in 1961, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is one of the UK’s largest independent funders.
In 2025, we provided £52.9m in funding towards a wide range of work in support of our aims: to improve Our Natural World, secure A Fairer Future and nurture Creative, Confident Communities. We also have a £60m allocation to social investments and a £10m allocation to impact investments. Our money comes from our investments.
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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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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 investments ensure that we can keep working to improve our natural world, secure a fairer future and strengthen the bonds in communities in the UK for decades to come.
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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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HR policies
Information on HR policies for people working at Esmée. As well as providing guidance on employment issues including the range of benefits available to staff, they ensure that we adhere to the law with consistency and consideration.
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You might be interested in
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20 May 2026Migration Museum: building a new museum with community at its heart
Migration Museum share how they developed a People’s Panel to embed local voices directly into the creation of their new, permanent home.
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New Connections – challenging the way we fund
New Connections is supporting 20 organisations working for racial or migrant justice in the UK arts, community, environment and social justice sectors. As the learning Network comes to a close, we are sharing useful insights for funders who want to support grassroots and founder-led organisations, and for organisations that need their support but are frustrated with the funding system.
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Holding power as a member of the Involving Young People Collective
Daniel Mapatac from Esmée’s Involving Young People Collective (IYPC) shares his reflections on the impact ‘holding power’ as a young consultant has had on him and why shifting power to young people is important for creating long-term systems change.
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Pre-application Q&A webinar: 3 June 2026
We're hosting a pre-application Q&A webinar on 3 June at 2pm for organisations interested in applying to Esmée for support who have questions about our application process or guidance.
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