Esmée Fairbairn Foundation at 50

2011 marked the 50th anniversary of the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.  In the five decades since we were established we have channelled over £400 million into the arts, education, the environment and social welfare.

To mark our birthday we commissioned a short film with some stories about what we do.  Click below to see our birthday film: 

The anniversary provided us with a moment for celebration, to take pride in the organisations that we have supported and the lives across the UK that we have been able to change for the better.  It is also an opportunity to look back and reflect on the journey that we have been on, with friends past and present.     

In the Annual Report you will find a short history of the Foundation. Esmée Fairbairn was set up in 1961 by Ian Fairbairn. Committed to the benefits of enterprise and opportunity, the Foundation sought to back people on the ground, supporting ideas that might create structural change and reinforcing the best of British culture and society. During its first few years the Foundation had an income of between £5,000 and £10,000 and made just a few select grants to education and social welfare projects.

50 years on the Foundation is one of the largest in the UK, making 440 grants and spending in excess of £30 million in 2010.  The road here has not been without significant hurdles. In 1999 the Foundation sold its shares in M&G and with new-found fortune came new-found responsibilities. Having spent four decades giving money away, we now also had to make it, and in the last 13 years we have built a substantial investment portfolio.
 
This process of adaptation as circumstances change is very much at the heart of Esmée's approach and will continue to be a core part of our strategy as we look forward to the next 50 years.

Although the Foundation as it exists today is beyond the dreams of those who sat around Ian’s kitchen table, we remain true to the principles that Ian and Esmée held dear; supporting civil society and working with organisations who can deliver sustained benefits to individuals, communities and society as a whole.

As part of our celebrations, we chose 15 organisations to whom we have given birthday grants.  These total £5 million (this is in addition to our usual grant-making).

Art Fund £600,000 towards RENEW, an initiative to help build collections in up to six UK museums.

Barton Hill Settlement £200,000 towards reserves.

British Film Institute £200,000 towards cataloguing, preserving and digitising the private collection by film Director Ken Loach.

Community Foundation Network £750,000 towards developing a fellowship of philanthropists.

Dulwich Picture Gallery £200,000 towards the Gallery's endowment fund.

Emmaus UK £200,000 towards support for new and existing communities enabling people to move on from Homelessness.

MyBnk £200,000 towards reserves and working capital.

National Museum Wales £600,000 towards digitising and displaying historic photography collections.

National Trust £300,000 towards land acquisition at Wicken Fen.

Profound and Multiple Impairment Service £200,000 towards reserves.

Royal Botanic Gardens Kew £750,000 towards the seed vault and related work on lowland meadow seed at the Millennium Seed bank, Wakehurst.

Sutton Borough Citizens Advice Bureaux £20,340 towards core costs.

The Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough £300,000 towards land acquisition at Great Fen.

The Who Cares? Trust £200,000 towards reserves.

Wordsworth Trust £200,000 towards long-term strategic plans for the Wordsworth Trust site.

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