In 2024, we offered £5,000 in wellbeing awards to 52 of the organisations we grant fund to help them prioritise the wellbeing of their staff and volunteers. A year later, we surveyed the recipients to learn how they used the funding and what impact it had. The findings in this report are based on feedback from the 22 organisations that responded to the survey.
Multi-year grants with a wellbeing component, or unrestricted funding that allows us to respond to emerging mental health needs, would make a significant difference in building a resilient and supported team capable of delivering high-impact, compassionate work.
Survey respondent
Introduction
In late 2023, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation’s Trustees were concerned to see repeated mentions of burnout and poor wellbeing in reports from organisations across our strategy: from arts environment, community, and social justice organisations. They were keen to take action and asked what we could do to help.
Esmée gives long-term unrestricted grants that organisations can use for whatever they need. Even so, it can be hard to prioritise wellbeing from stretched budgets in the face of so much uncertainty. From our experience of offering Funding Plus support for many years, and the findings of [1], we suspected that small amounts of ringfenced funding could have an impact.
Esmée's Trustees agreed to ringfence £250,000 for wellbeing grants through Funding Plus, which we offered to organisations who we felt could most benefit from the support.
What we offered
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- We gave £5,000 each to 52 organisations that had an active grant from Esmée.
- The awards were intended to improve staff, volunteer or trustee wellbeing.
- Organisations did not have to apply, but we did ask them to tell us how they planned to use the money before we made the payment.
- The only restriction was that the money could not be used for staff pay.
Who we supported
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- We used our learning data and relationships with organisations to identify who could most benefit from wellbeing support.
- The majority of organisations were in our A Fairer Future portfolio, working on the frontlines of issues like migrant justice and gender justice (including transgender rights).
- Some organisations had existing counselling or clinical supervision set up, or already worked in a trauma-informed way.
Many of the organisations we support work at the intersections of multiple issues. The chart above shows the primary priority or aim they are working towards in line with Esmée's strategy. See the methodology section to learn more about the organisations who responded to the survey.
How organisations planned to use the support
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Before we made the payment, organisations told us how they planned to use the money. Every plan was different and bespoke in some way, either to their organisation or to their way of working. But there were three clear themes:
- Support to do the job (eg. therapy)
- Getting together in person
- Finding joy, escape, or connection
Who this report is for
We will use the findings of this report to plan our Funding Plus offer, to shape how we manage grants, and to understand the pressures that the organisations we fund face every day.
If your organisation is struggling with staff burnout, the report shares many different approaches to improving wellbeing and could give you some useful ideas and options.
It will also be useful for funders that offer capacity building support, or who are concerned about the wellbeing of the people they fund.
Explore the findings
Use the menu to see the key findings and recommendations, more detail about what respondents said about the support, and information about the methodology for this report.
Next: Key findings
Highlights from the survey including key wellbeing concerns, the impact of the wellbeing awards, and recommendations for funders. We also share a few questions for us to consider.