Growing income from Trusts and Foundations through a Strategy Shift

Our session will focus on how to fundraise successfully from Trusts and Foundations through a strategy shift. We believe we are well positioned to lead this discussion as Global Witness was formerly an NGO focusing on anti-corruption, natural resource exploitation and human rights, but in 2019 shifted our strategy to focus more explicitly on the climate emergency. Over the last 5 years, we have learnt some valuable lessons around the power of stewardship and strong storytelling, which helped lead to the recent award of a transformational gift of $6.5m, to be spent over two years, granted to us by one of our longstanding funders, who we’ve been able to maintain – and grow – engagement with throughout the change process.

The session will outline what, in our experience, has worked well, what the challenges have been, and the challenges that we are still facing. Some of the key themes that we would like to explore include trends within the philanthropy space (e.g. a shift towards climate and environmental interests, and how we have leant on that to build our narrative), the importance of a healthy balance between restricted and unrestricted income, and how working in partnership with others in the space is vital to building support. By the end of the session we aim for attendees to have a better understanding of how to reposition their organisation whilst maintaining and growing relationships with Trust and Foundation funders.

We are keen for this session to be as interactive and collaborative as possible and would love input throughout the conversation from others who may have gone through, or are about to embark on, this challenging process, to share learnings and identify best practice.

Global Witness has a Fundraising function of 14, split into three teams: Grants (existing Trusts, Foundations and Statutory grants, renewals and uplifts), New Business (focusing on prospective Trust, Foundation and Statutory funders) and Individual Giving (Major Gifts). We also have a newly developed Digital Fundraising and Engagement Hub, consisting of two people, as we seek to diversify our income mix. Our turnover in 2023 was c.£11m, 90% of which came from Trusts, Foundation and Statutory sources, and our income target for 2024 is £13.74m.

Key learnings from this session:

By the end of the session we aim for attendees to have a better understanding of how to reposition their organisation whilst maintaining and growing relationships with Trust and Foundation funders.