A holistic approach to philanthropy at John Ellerman Foundation – Beyond Grants

Case in brief

The issue

Foundations want to have a positive impact on the social and environmental issues they exist to address, but the amount of funding available for grants is limited. How can foundations leverage other assets – notably their endowments – to drive greater impact?

The context

The movement towards sustainable, social and impact investing is growing, across Europe and beyond. But many foundations experience a fundamental disconnect between the way their endowments are invested, and their charitable missions. How can they bridge the gap between their desired impact on society and the environment, and the impact of their investments? And how can foundations support programme teams (with their deep understanding of impact) and investment professionals (with their specialist knowledge of financial markets) to work together to achieve shared goals?

The path forward

Many foundations are missing the opportunity to have a positive impact that is much greater than the impact of grants alone, by not considering how they can use their endowment to further their charitable mission.

At John Ellerman Foundation, we believe that foundations should consider their impact holistically – not just focusing on the impact of their grants, but also of their investments and wider operations. This case study provides some ideas that other foundations can consider, if they share this ambition.

About John Ellerman Foundation

John Ellerman Foundation is a small endowed grantmaking foundation based in the UK. Our charitable aim is to advance well-being for people, society and the natural world. The value of our endowment is circa £150 million, and we give out around £5 million in grants each year.

Overview

At John Ellerman Foundation, we want to advance our charitable aim by using all of our assets. This means that we take a holistic approach to philanthropy, by seeking to achieve positive impact through our investments, our grantmaking and our wider operations. We have embedded this holistic approach in practice over a period of several years, and have paid particular attention to our ambition to achieve a positive impact through our endowment by ensuring that our investment activity aligns with our aim to advance the well-being of people, society and the natural world.

Approach

We have taken several steps to embed a more holistic approach to understanding and advancing our impact as a foundation.

First, we made sure that a holistic approach to impact is at the heart of our strategy for 2025-30. This strategy publicly commits us to continue working to make sure our investments, as well as our grants, are more aligned with our charitable aim.

Second, we developed a new Impact Framework for 2025-30. This framework gives equal importance to the impact of our investments, and of our grantmaking. It provides a structure to help us understand our progress, and helps us to assess the impact of our money, our time and expertise, and our decisions in the long term.

Third, we have set out the impact we would like to achieve through our investments in our Investment Policy. This document outlines how we aim to have a positive, real-world impact by using our endowment in three ways:

1. Generating returns to fund our grantmaking.
2. Making social investments that achieve a positive social and/or environmental impact in line with our charitable aim, as well as generating financial returns.
3. Investing and managing our funds responsibly, and using our influence as an asset owner to engage with investee companies, and the investment industry more widely, to encourage more sustainable practices.

We also created a single Head of Impact role, responsible for the impact of both our grants and our investments, to avoid creating silos.

Results

We have recently appointed new investment consultants, who are supporting us in our aims to increase the positive impact of our endowment. We are currently undertaking an investment strategy review, which is due to conclude in 2027. We hope that this process will help us to further our ambitions for leveraging greater impact through the use of our endowment.

We have recently launched a new social investment portfolio, and intend to work towards investing approximately 10% of our endowment (currently equivalent to ~ £15 million) in social investments over the coming years. You can read more about this commitment in our new Social Investment Policy.

We have also seen some success in our ability to influence the investment management industry towards a more sustainable future for the planet. We have published a piece about how we have been able to use our voice as an asset owner to materially influence the investment approach taken by fund managers with combined assets much larger than ours.

We continue to monitor the impact of our grantmaking and our investment practices, and work hard to ensure that we are making full use of our assets to achieve the greatest possible impact. In early 2027, we intend to share more on our website about our impact since the launch of our 2025-30 strategy.

Key takeaways

• Consider ways in which your foundation can advance its charitable aim through using all of its assets – not only grantmaking.
• Use your strategy and investment policy, if you have one, to outline how you can use your endowment to drive positive social and environmental impact.
• Explore ways in which you can drive this ambition forward within the resource constraints that you have: Taking a more holistic approach to philanthropy does not require being a large or well-resourced foundation.
• If you need investment advice, appoint investment advisors who understand your charitable aim and are committed to supporting you to advance social and environmental impact in line with your foundation’s values and priorities.
• Create opportunities to bring together people with expertise in social and/or environmental impact, and expertise in the investment industry. Draw on all of your assets – including all of your people – to ensure you are able to access a wide range of experience and perspectives to help progress your foundation’s impact holistically.

Calls to action

1. Ensure that your foundation’s organisational strategy encompasses your investment ambitions, as well as the approach you take to grantmaking.
2. Develop a holistic Impact Framework (or equivalent) which supports you to consider the impact of the whole foundation’s activities and assets.
3. Consider how your foundation can use its influence as an asset owner to advance its charitable mission through the financial sector. In addition, you may want to explore the potential for making social investments that have a direct positive impact on social or environmental issues in line with your priorities.
4. Share your experiences publicly to inspire other foundations to think “beyond grants”.

If you would like to discuss the foundations experience or any of the topics raised in this case study, contact Alice Thornton.