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Dateline:
1st September, 2004
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Notes for companies seeking funding
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation has updated its guidelines for
applicants. The Foundation is one of the largest independent grantmaking
bodies in the UK. They make grants for charitable purposes across the
UK in four programme areas: Arts & Heritage, Education, Environment
& Social Development.
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation makes grants to organisations which
aim to improve the quality of life for people and communities in the
UK, both now and in the future.
They like to consider work which others may find hard to fund, perhaps
because it breaks new ground, appears too risky, requires core funding,
or needs a more unusual form of financial help such as a loan.
They also take initiatives ourselves where new thinking is required
or where they believe there are important unexplored opportunities.
They are one of the largest independent grantmaking foundations in
the UK. They make grants for charitable purposes across the UK in four
programme areas:
- Arts & Heritage
- Education
- Environment
- Social Development
They receive many more applications than they can fund and each programme
has specific funding priorities.
In 2004 they expect to make grants up to £26 million. Their grant
making fund is divided between the four programmes as follows:
- Arts & Heritage (£5.6m)
- Education (£5.6m)
- Environment (£5.6m)
- Social Development (£8.6m).
Arts & Heritage
The Foundation allocates approximately 75% of its Arts & Heritage
grants budget to the Arts programme and 25% to the Heritage programme.
Arts programme
The Arts programme has two main areas of interest: Serving Audiences
and Supporting Artists. They welcome proposals that fit the aims
of one or both of these, particularly proposals that benefit audiences
and artists outside Greater London.
Serving Audiences
Aim:
To expand high quality performing and visual arts provision in parts
of the UK less well served than others.
Funding priorities:
To achieve this aim they will support proposals which do one or more
of the following:
- sustain and/or create regional touring circuits and/or tour across
UK national borders
- create opportunities for showing new work or second runs
- involve artform/s which tend to be less well funded
- reach new audiences
Supporting Artists
Aim
To support the professional development of talented artists throughout
their careers.
They do not accept applications from individual artists.
Funding priorities:
To achieve this aim they will support proposals which do one or more
of the following:
- nurture artists at an early stage in their career
- help artists to develop new approaches to their artistic practice
later in their careers
- enable the creation of new work
- develop the skills of curators and other arts professionals who
support artists.
Characteristics of the work they want to fund through the Arts programme.
In addition to their specific priorities above, they wish to support
proposals that do one or more of the following:
- support innovation in terms of artistic practice and delivery
- add value such as levering in other funding
- have the potential to make a wider impact on policy, or have a
significant influence on a particular area of the arts.
Heritage programme
Aim
The Heritage programme aims to preserve and provide public access to
our national heritage particularly outside Greater London.
Funding priorities
To achieve this aim they will support proposals which do one or more
of the following:
- preserve and provide public access to collections of historical
significance
- preserve and provide public access to buildings of historical or
architectural significance
They are unlikely to support capital proposals where the total project
cost exceeds around £500,000 or proposals from organisations with
a large turnover.
Characteristics of the work they want to fund through the Heritage
programme:
In addition to their specific priorities above, they wish to support
proposals that have one or more of the following characteristics:
- is unusual or difficult to fund is a vernacular building of local
value is significant to the local community
- involves heritage organisations working in partnership
- develops the craft skills of professionals in the heritage sector.
Education
The Foundation's Education programme covers two broad areas of interest:
New approaches to education and Hard-to-reach learners.
They look to support imaginative and flexible approaches to learning
that are unlikely to be funded through statutory education sources.
Where appropriate, they will support the costs of professional and curriculum
development, research and evaluation.
New approaches to education
Aim
To improve the quality, breadth and relevance of learning for young
people (0-16) in pre-school and statutory education by testing new
approaches to teaching and learning.
In this category, they will only consider work that is likely to
have a lasting influence on education policy and/or practice. All
applicants should contact staff on 020 7297 4722 for advice before
applying.
In addition to proposals that match their priorities, they occasionally
consider other ideas that meet the aim of their 'New approaches to
education' category.
Funding priorities
- improving the quality and relevance of pre-school and statutory
education (0-16) by giving young people, parents and carers more
say in how, when, where and what young people learn
- improving motivation, behaviour and attainment in schools through
strategies that promote young people's emotional, social and moral
development (this does not include routine aspects of the citizenship
curriculum)
- increasing the skills and confidence of primary school and early
years' staff in teaching the arts (projects should be of regional
or national significance and should not include routine work by
artists in schools)
- improving the accessibility and relevance of learning for under
fives, young people of exceptional ability and/or those with physical
and learning difficulties.
Characteristics of the work they want to fund through New approaches
to
education
Applicants should specify:
(a) why the work cannot be supported through statutory education
funding
(b) how the work is new or developmental
(c) how the work will have a wide and lasting impact on policy and/or
practice
(d) how the work will involve partnerships between statutory education
and other providers.
Hard-to-reach learners
Aim
To develop new ways of inspiring hard-to-reach learners to engage
with education, primarily outside formal education settings.
Funding priorities
- helping young people (3-16) who are excluded from pre-school
or school to value and re-engage with education (this includes young
people who are permanently excluded from school, and those missing
mainstream education for other reasons including bullying, disability
or family circumstances)
- inspiring hard-to-reach adults to engage with learning through
imaginative and informal education programmes (this does not include
routine work in basic skills or other courses that are eligible
for statutory funding)
- giving hard-to-reach parents or carers the confidence to support
their children's education and to learn for themselves.
Characteristics of the work they want to fund through Hard-to-reach
learners
Applicants should specify:
(a) why the work cannot be supported through statutory education
funding
(b) how the work will target hard-to-reach learners, i.e. those
unable to take advantage of educational opportunities for reasons
of background, culture or disability
(c) how the work is new or developmental.
Social Development
Aim
The Social Development programme aims to improve the lives of people
and communities facing disadvantage. They prioritise those at greatest
need, including those living in or on the edge of poverty.
Funding priorities
They want to invest in organisations which change people's lives. They
will support community-based work which enables individuals to progress,
enterprising activities, and initiatives which tackle more entrenched,
structural problems. Applications may be for local, regional or national
work, which tackles disadvantage and meets the specific priorities in
one of the following areas:
Independence
They are particularly interested in increasing independence in the
following
ways:
- new opportunities for individuals to become more economically
independent, e.g. job coaching, work-related mentoring
- interventions at times of transition or crisis which improve people's
chances of long term independence e.g. moving from prison, seeking
asylum, leaving care
- imaginative proposals to enable people to become more involved
in their communities, e.g. by running their own organisations or
playing a more direct part in decision-making.
Enterprise
They want to encourage organisations to be more effective by:
- enabling social enterprises and social firms to improve their
business or social performance
- supporting enterprising voluntary and community organisations
to become more sustainable by making the most of their existing
resources and developing new ones, e.g. by increasing earned income,
trading for a social purpose
- strengthening enterprising organisations by developing leadership
and talent.
Institutional change
They welcome creative proposals that tackle institutional barriers
to change for those at greatest disadvantage, in particular those
which:
- advance financial inclusion by increasing access to financial
services
- encourage the wider community to become more involved with responses
to crime and punishment, e.g. by developing people's understanding
of the penal system, increasing the participation of local communities
and others in prisons and community penalties
- promote greater social cohesion by enabling divided communities
and people to work together
- find ways of encouraging public, voluntary and private institutions
to become more responsive and accessible to those at greatest disadvantage.
Characteristics of the work they want to fund through the Social
Development programme:
They want to make grants which help promote and share good practice,
so applications should show how the proposal would do all or some
of the following:
- demonstrate quality from best practice to exemplary work
- add value such as levering other funding, showing good volunteer
involvement
- have a wider impact by leading to changes in the law, policy or
practice or developing new approaches which can be rolled out elsewhere
- bring about lasting change for people and communities facing disadvantage
- be inclusive through work which is user-led and engages people
who have previously played less of a part in the community
- involve individuals who are talented and capable of achieving
change
- prevent future problems rather than dealing with the symptoms.
Website: www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk
(Thanks to Scottie Anderson of the SCOTS-NITS email
group for bring this to our attention.)
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