Grants
Funding Principles
The Foundation's broad range of areas of interest includes a set of common principles which underlie our grantmaking.
While most of the grants we make are in response to applications, we sometimes choose an area we wish to support, and seek organisations with whom we might work in partnership. These generally become Major Initiatives of the Foundation.
When assessing applications, we look for:
- A commitment to excellence. We support organisations, programs and individuals who are outstanding in their field, in a national and international context.
- An emphasis on the "innovate - evaluate - disseminate" process. We seek to fund programs and projects which take a new approach to problems, support the evaluation of their trial, and if successful, their replication in other locations or contexts.
- Potential for leverage. Our grants have greater impact when combined with support from other sources. These might include other trusts and foundations, government, business, and volunteers. We are happy to be one of a number of supporters of a program.
- A focus on prevention. In seeking to maximise the value of our grants, we try to address the causes of problems, rather than treat the symptoms. Supporting research is fundamental to this approach.
- Long-term thinking. We try to fund programs that will continue to have an impact well beyond the period of our support. Will the grant be significant (within its context) in ten years time?
- Partnerships. We encourage applications from organisations which are working with others in their field, and indeed in other fields.
- Sustainability. In making grants, attention is given to the sustainability of the project at the conclusion of the period covered by the grant.