By Paul Ramsbottom
One summer day in 1955, members of the Wolfson family sat in their sitting room with their legal advisor, Lord Nathan, passing a document between them. Leaning the piece of paper on their knees, they signed the document that would create the Wolfson Foundation: a public and legal reflection of the family’s existing philanthropy – and the start of over six decades of consistent giving.
Society has changed dramatically since the mid-1950s and yet we remain committed to their broad founding principles. Our grant making today reflects a deep-held belief that the sharing and creation of knowledge are essential to a healthy, resilient and creative society. Education and research sit at the heart of what we do. Crucially our founders were also shrewd enough to give their successors plenty of flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances.
The Wolfson Foundation has now passed the £1 billion milestone in terms of grants awarded (over £2 billion in today’s money). The funds have gone to support and promote thousands of remarkable projects across virtually every community in the UK – and within education, science, medicine, heritage, humanities, the arts and health and disability.
Contemplating this vast sum, it is tempting to wonder, where next? The needs are great. Why not spend down the endowment, wrap up now and go out with a bang? Perpetual foundations are out of fashion. The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated the huge needs of the moment.
Properly managed and carefully administered, however, I believe that long-term philanthropy has a crucial place in society.
Long-term relationships
Long-term philanthropy should lead to long-term relationships. At Wolfson we challenge ourselves to avoid the complacency that can come with a long-term endowment and place great emphasis on being a friendly, approachable organisation responding to the needs of those we support. The relationships we have nurtured over the decades are key to all that we do.
The greatest joy of leading an organisation like Wolfson is getting to know our grant holders and watching the evolution, expansion and enhancement of their work. Many organisations have received funding over many decades (although we are keen not to have a ‘closed list’ of partner organisations) and it’s cheering to see how our funding, generally alongside support from other funders, has enabled them to enhance their mission.
Balancing the needs of present and future
When confronted with a crisis – the financial crash of 2008, or the ongoing Covid pandemic – some understandably call for a spend-out approach to tackle immediate catastrophe. At one level, it is hard not to be sympathetic. Emergency support has been essential to allow organisations of all sizes to weather the pandemic storm. Indeed, in 2020 we temporarily pivoted our funding model to unrestricted funding and set up a Covid-19 support fund following conversations with our partners and grant holders. During the year we paid out a record amount of £45 million.
The downside to this approach is that we don’t have a crystal ball. We cannot predict where the next crisis will come from – nor indeed how long this current crisis will last. The funding landscape thrives on variety, and one philanthropic approach cannot possibly suit every situation. But I do believe that it pays to be prepared. In Wolfson’s case, if we had invested all our reserves in tackling the challenges of austerity in 2008 – serious challenges which justified major investment – we would not have been able to provide the same level of flexible support in the pandemic of 2020. We need to tread the delicate balance of the immediate and the needs of the future.
The multiplier effect
Sir Isaac Wolfson established the Foundation with some £5 million in 1955. We could have simply spent the £5 million; instead, we have allocated over £2 billion across six decades. It’s clear that the major advantage of long-term philanthropy is the multiplier effect. Investing wisely and sustainably creates ongoing and future returns. The Wolfson position has always attempted to be one of thoughtfulness and taking the long-term view, and we reap the rewards of that initial wise investment today. We continue our founders’ commitment to careful investing, and in recent years have divested from fossil fuel extractors, committed to ESG funds and signed the Association of Charitable Foundations’ Funder Commitment on Climate Change.
Wolfson largely supports capital projects for which it can be hard to fundraise – a source of funding that our applicant surveys tell us is desperately needed. It seems to me that spending down reserves in pursuit of immediate priorities would be like killing the goose that lays golden eggs year after year. I have no doubt that £5 million would have had a transformative impact, had it been awarded in 1955, but I am thankful for the foresight of our founders who adopted a position which has allowed the Foundation to support thousands more places and people in the years since. There is a place for spend-out foundations…but let’s not issue a universal call to kill the golden goose laying charitable eggs.
David Cannadine is one of our most eminent historians and a much-valued trustee of the Wolfson Foundation. He is fond of saying that we must avoid the great arrogance “which assumes that the only time is now” as well as “the geographical parochialism which assumes that the only place is here”. Wise words as we consider the path of the Foundation in future.
Paul Ramsbottom OBE is Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation,
