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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19 January 2026Updates to Esmée’s Board of Trustees
We welcome Harriet Manners, the great-granddaughter of Esmée's founder, Ian Fairbairn, as Trustee. We also share updates including the appointment of Professor Claire Alexander as Vice Chair of the Bard of Trustees.
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What’s needed for equitable and diverse leadership in the environment sector
In a guest blog, Azzam Al Kassir from Makani Cambridge shares reflections on the work they’ve been leading on with Common Purpose to co-design a leadership programme to support a more equitable and diverse environment sector, and why an ecosystem approach is needed.
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Esmée staff and Trustee diversity data 2025
Analysis from the 2025 diversity survey of Esmée Trustees and staff to help us track progress on diversity, equity and inclusion within the organisation.
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Reimagining leadership in the environment sector webinar, 29 January
Join us for a webinar on 29 January with Common Purpose and Makani Cambridge who have been leading work to reimagine leadership in the environment sector to support a more diverse and equitable sector. We'll also be sharing more about next steps and how you can get involved.
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