Stronger Foundations
We worked with members to identify 40 pillars of excellent practice that all foundations can aspire to.
Our Stronger Foundations resources help foundations reflect on their current practices and take steps to become even more effective.
The pillars of stronger foundation practice
The pillars of stronger practice provide a framework for all foundations to:
- Reflect on their current practice
- Consider what else they could do to deliver their missions even more effectively.
The pillars are deliberately aspirational in scope, not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ checklist. Each foundation can determine how to apply them in their own unique contexts and circumstances.
We are developing new practical guides to each of the pillars. To find out more about these plans or to get involved in shaping our guidance, email [email protected].
Explore the pillars by theme in the sections below.
Funding practices
Most foundations work towards their missions by funding others. The ways in which they distribute funds are central to their impact.
Our funding practice guides explore the following five pillars of stronger funding practice. ACF members can access these guides via the links below (login required).
A stronger foundation:
- Identifies and selects funding practices that are most likely to fulfil its mission and designs its processes in accordance with its values
- Recognises the unique and vital role of grant funding and is aware of the variety of grants that can be made and the implications of each type
- Seeks to achieve positive impact beyond a financial contribution
- Proactively strives to understand the effects of its funding on others, and seeks to avoid and redress harm
- Regularly reviews its funding practices as part of a culture of learning, and thinks collaboratively to enhance its impact.
Explore all our funding practice resources.
Strategy and governance
Good governance and an effective strategy are central to how foundations maximise their potential for social good.
A stronger foundation:
- Has a deep understanding of its vision, mission and values and articulates them publicly
- Continually strengthens its governance, including its diversity
- Informs its strategy with diverse perspectives and a range of evidence
- Designs its strategy to make the most of all available resources, and supports good governance in those it funds
- Recognises the importance and implications of time
- Is aware of the external context and its role in the wider ecosystem (members-only guide, login required)
- Is accountable, open to feedback and responsive to challenge.
Explore all our strategy and governance resources.
Impact and learning
Stronger foundations understand the impact they are trying to achieve, and how their actions contribute to this. Having a learning culture is crucial for both understanding and improving impact.
A stronger foundation:
- Understands its mission and the impact it is seeking to achieve
- Bases its decisions on evidence, including meaningful feedback and lived experience
- Believes that everyone in the organisation has a role in the pursuit of impact and enables a culture of learning (members-only guide, login required)
- Considers the whole toolbox in pursuit of impact
- Proactively seeks to understand how its operations affect others, and seeks to avoid and redress harm
- Learns from failure
- Thinks collaboratively to pursue impact and advance its learning.
Explore all our impact and learning resources.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
Despite many examples of excellent practice, it is widely recognised that the foundation sector needs to make further progress on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Foundations each have different starting points and may not be able to achieve all aspects of stronger practice overnight. What matters most is to start, and to strive to do more.
A stronger foundation:
- Invests time and resources in understanding and defining DEI
- Produces and reviews strategies that will implement DEI practices
- Collects, tracks and publishes data on its own practices and performances
- Has a diverse trustee board and staff team, both in terms of demographics and experience (members-only guide, login required)
- Reflects and implements DEI practices in its funding activities
- Expresses its DEI commitment, policies and practices publicly
- Makes itself accountable to those it serves and supports
- Uses its own power to advocate for and advance DEI practices
- Collaborates with others to promote and implement DEI practices.
Explore all our diversity, equity and inclusion resources.
Transparency and engagement
Foundations are making more information about themselves and their work publicly available. They increasingly recognise the benefits of thinking proactively about how to communicate in ways that meet their audiences' needs.
A stronger foundation:
- Understands the importance of transparency and engagement, and articulates its approach
- Embeds transparency and engagement across all its activities
- Enables an internal culture of transparency and engagement
- Proactively engages external audiences (members-only guide, login required)
- Makes the most of opportunities and initiatives that enable transparency and engagement.
Explore all our transparency and engagement resources.
Investment
Investments can generate income to fund a foundation's charitable activities. They can also be used to achieve a foundation’s charitable mission directly. Many foundations combine these approaches.
A stronger foundation:
- Understands that responsibility for its investments sits with each and every member of the trustee board
- Prioritises its mission when setting investment objectives (members-only guide, login required)
- Engages with and holds to account those managing its investments
- Pursues transparency and responds to scrutiny
- Actively seeks a variety of research and views to inform its approach to investment
- Reviews its own time-horizon
- Seeks to positively influence the behaviour of others in relation to its investment.
Explore all our investment resources.
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Assess your foundation’s practice
ACF members can access our Stronger Foundations self-assessment tools (login required).
These can help you reflect on your current funding practices and prioritise areas where you might make further progress.
Read our reports drawing on data from the self-assessment tools:
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Case studies
Our collection of case studies provides wide-ranging examples of how ACF members are putting the Stronger Foundations pillars into practice.
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Ten pillars for smaller foundations
Although they may be constrained by time and money, smaller foundations can – and do – still aspire to and achieve stronger practice.
Our research found that smaller foundations often demonstrate:
- Agile decision-making
- Strong connections to local communities
- Efficient operations
- Flexibility in how they respond to changing circumstances.
We worked with our Smaller funders network (member login required) to identify ten pillars of stronger practice that are most relevant for smaller foundations.
Explore the ten pillars for smaller foundations
A stronger foundation:
- Understands its mission and the impact it is seeking to achieve (explore impact and learning resources)
- Thinks collaboratively to pursue impact and advance its learning (explore impact and learning resources)
- Identifies and selects funding practices that are most likely to fulfil its mission and designs its processes in accordance with its values (member-only guide, login required)
- Seeks to achieve positive impact beyond a financial contribution (member-only guide, login required)
- Is aware of the external context and its role in the wider ecosystem (member-only guide, login required)
- Continually strengthens its governance, including its diversity (explore strategy and governance resources)
- Invests time and resources in understanding and defining DEI (explore diversity, equity and inclusion resources)
- Makes itself accountable to those it serves and supports (explore diversity, equity and inclusion resources)
- Understands that responsibility for its investments sits with each and every member of the trustee board (explore investment resources)
- Understands the importance of transparency and engagement, and articulates its approach (explore transparency and engagement resources)
ACF members can use our dedicated self-assessment tool (login required) for smaller foundations, focused on these ten pillars.
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Ten pillars for foundation chairs
Achieving stronger practice requires engagement from a foundation’s trustees and (if they employ any staff) its staff team. As a key link between the board and executive, chairs of foundations often play a vital role in leading and supporting this work.
We identified ten pillars of stronger practice that are particularly relevant for chairs of foundation boards.
Explore the ten pillars for foundation chairs
A stronger foundation:
- Has a deep understanding of its vision, mission and values and articulates them publicly (explore strategy and governance resources)
- Makes itself accountable to those it serves and supports (explore diversity, equity and inclusion resources)
- Believes that everyone in the organisation has a role in the pursuit of impact and enables a culture of learning (member-only guide, login required)
- Proactively seeks to understand how its operations affect others, and seeks to avoid and redress harm (explore impact and learning resources)
- Has a diverse trustee board and staff team, both in terms of demographics and experience (member-only guide, login required)
- Recognises the importance and implications of time (explore strategy and governance resources)
- Is aware of the external context and its role in the wider ecosystem (member-only guide, login required)
- Understands the importance of transparency and engagement, and articulates its approach (explore transparency and engagement resources)
- Understands that responsibility for its investments sits with each and every member of the trustee board (explore investment resources)
- Identifies and selects funding practices that are most likely to fulfil its mission and designs its processes in accordance with its values (member-only guide, login required)
Download our report 10 pillars of stronger practice for chairs of charitable foundations (2021).
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Cross-cutting themes
When we developed the Stronger Foundations pillars, five themes consistently came up across all the areas we looked at. Expand the sections below to explore the pillars that relate to each theme.
Read more about these themes in our report Stronger Foundations: five cross-cutting themes (2020).
Mission
Knowledge
Power
Accountability
Connection
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Background to Stronger Foundations
Stronger Foundations was informed by six working groups, which included more than 100 ACF members. Many other members and experts from beyond the foundation sector have also been involved through events, surveys and providing feedback.
Between 2019 and 2020, we published the following six thematic reports, which defined and explored the 40 pillars of stronger foundation practice:
Foundation practice is continuously evolving, as is the context that foundations are working in. With input from our members, ACF will continue to update our Stronger Foundations resources regularly, so that they can equip foundations to rise to current and future challenges.
To find out how your foundation can get involved, email [email protected].
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