Impact and
lessons
learned
Systems change requires collaboration, adaptative learning, and a strong field of partners.
In 2020, that meant strengthening partners through core support and pursuing co-financing and leverage opportunities to amplify our own contributions. At the same time, we also focussed on improving how we work with our partners, particularly by increasing the duration and size of our grants.
Good
design
We fund and co-create initiatives with the right design to not only address systemic challenges, but also strengthen organisations and networks, influence policies, and shape industry narratives.
We fund and co-create initiatives with the right design to not only address systemic challenges, but also strengthen organisations and networks,
influence policies and shape industry narratives.
It means focussing on bigger bets. In 2020, we committed 20% of our annual budget to longer-term and larger grants that gave mission-aligned partners more flexibility and stability. But we have more work to do. Our median grant size of EUR 200,000 and average grant duration of 18.4 months do not yet reflect the long-term commitment we want, and we are working hard to improve on this.
That said, as a new foundation that launched only in January 2020, we have spent our first year experimenting, testing new concepts, and developing relationships with new partners. As we build trust (on both sides), we will make increasingly longer-term strategic grants to these partners.
our response in numbers
MEDIAN Grant Size
Average Grant length
*Center for Effective Philanthropy custom cohort benchmark of Laudes Foundation (formerly C&A Foundation) grantee perception survey, published in 2020.
**Implementing and core support grants above EUR 50K.
Strengthening
organisations and
ecosystems for impact
Core support grants – as opposed to earmarked funding for specific initiatives – give partners the ability to deploy funds wherever they see the need for the most support. It builds strong, viable organisations, which is critical for the larger systems change we aspire to.
Core support grants – as opposed to earmarked funding for specific initiatives – give partners the ability to deploy funds wherever they see the need for the most support. Core funding builds strong, viable organisations, which is critical for the larger systems change we aspire to.
We believe that for it to be most impactful, it must be unrestricted and supported by targeted, non-financial assistance in areas such as strategy, communications and leadership that will ensure our partners’ effectiveness and longevity.
A quarter of the grants we made in 2020 provided core support to our partners and when we add the Covid-19 Emergency Fund, that number increases to 29%. Inspired by other funders that came before us such as the Ford Foundation and OAK Foundation, we are committed to increasing this percentage.