'Grants Plus'

Like all funding organisations, we seek to have impact beyond the money we give. 'Grants Plus' is an ethos that runs through much of our work. Below are some examples of how we pursue this aim.     

Role of the Foundation 

We believe that PHF, like other grant-making foundations, has an important role in society because of our independence and flexibility.

To use this role to assist us to deliver our mission, we will continue to support organisations which have a constructive influence on the law and public policy affecting grant-making charities, argue for proportionate regulation and accountability of charities, share our experiences with and learn from other grant-makers and organisations with similar values and encourage philanthropy.

We will, where possible, influence policy, legislation and change public opinion in our desire to find a better way. We will also support charitable organisations by developing and sharing knowledge about the most effective way of helping people and communities reach their potential and have a better quality of life.

More detailed references to this work can be found in the programme sections within this website, in particular under the 'Findings' headings, which reflects some of our work to evaluate, research and disseminate knowledge.

Support for unsuccessful applicants

The majority of applicants to our Open Grants schemes are unsuccessful. That does not necessarily mean that the proposed activity was not worthwhile, but because of high demand we have strict criteria for what we will fund. We nevertheless believe that our applications process is a useful exercise for organisations to go through, since it requires structured thinking about the proposed activity, and in particular the outcomes it hopes to achieve. We hope that the resources provided to support applicants will prove useful in applications elsewhere.

We also provide a list of alternative funding sources, for organisations that are ineligible or unsuccessful in their application. 

Non-monetary assistance to grantees

Over the course of a grant we may be able to help funded organisations in ways that go beyond the annual grant cheque. We work closely with grantees to shape project outcomes, and publish guidance on this subject to support grant applicants. We also provide information in the 'Grant holders' section of this website containing links to other sources of funding and support.

We are able to provide rooms for meetings to current and past grantees at our offices in Leeke Street, London. Click here to download full details. 

Capacity building for the philanthropic and third sectors 

A third strand of our 'Grants plus' activity is our promotion of philanthropy and efforts to build capacity. We believe that grant-making organisations have a unique role to play in society, as enablers of activity that can change lives and practices, and as the holders of valuable knowledge about what works in their fields of activity. We seek to translate our own experiences into shared learning as far as possible. See the section on research and evaluation for more information.

Funder alliances 

We are involved in many alliances and partnerships to develop common approaches to tackling many of society's problems. These include:

Philanthropic impact

In 2009 we commissioned the Center for Effective Philanthropy to carry out a Grantee Perception Report, to help us to understand better the impact we have on the organisations we support. In the wake of that activity, we have been active in encouraging other philanthropic foundations to conduct similar exercises - both to help them to make some of the improvements we have sought to make, and to help build a dataset for the UK philanthropic sector, giving useful benchmarks for performance and helping us all to contribute more effectively to solving societal problems. 

For more on the Grantee Perception report click here.