About Us

About Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Paul Hamlyn Foundation is an independent grant-making foundation set up by Paul Hamlyn, the publisher and philanthropist.

Our vision is for a just society in which everyone, especially young people, can realise their full potential and enjoy fulfilling and creative lives.

Our mission is to be an effective and independent funder, using all our resources to create opportunities and support social change. We partner with inspiring organisations and individuals to make sure that people facing disadvantage are at the heart of leading change and designing solutions to overcome inequality.

Our staff of about 49 is based in our light and comfortable offices near King’s Cross in London in the UK, and in India. At the moment, we are hybrid-working, asking colleagues to spend at least 40% of their time in the office to facilitate learning and knowledge sharing.

Our values and our approach

We have four values which guide us all in our work and relationships at PHF.

Collaboration and connection: We believe in the power of working together to achieve a greater impact.

Our aspiration is to capitalise on the connections between the different areas of our grant-making and to build communities that share a common interest. This is about how we work across our team internally and how we connect partners and allies externally. To achieve this, we cultivate awareness and develop deep knowledge of the fields in which we operate.

Trust: Trust is at the heart of strong relationships.

It is hard won and can be easily lost. With trust comes the possibility of collaboration. Without it, the power dynamic between funder and funded can undermine progress towards social change. To build trust we focus on delivering our commitments, and on being resilient and consistent over the long term.

Openness: Openness is key to building trust and enabling collaboration.

We want our processes to be as straightforward and transparent as possible, and we are committed to sharing our data clearly. We welcome feedback and will change the way we work if it is undermining the quality of the relationships we want to create. And we communicate honestly, learning from mistakes and celebrating what works.

Thoughtfulness: Every decision we take has an impact on someone, so we strive to think about others with kindness.

We want to be attentive and careful in exercising judgement and to create the time and space for deep conversations and learning. Being flexible and responsive to the needs of those we fund is critical if we are to demonstrate a thoughtful approach.

We want to innovate in our grant-making and to work with our peers to create a contemporary philanthropy that is responsive and flexible. This means doing things differently and using all our resources to improve our practice.

We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are determined to challenge racism and address the root causes of inequality in everything we do. This means acknowledging the power imbalance inherent in our work and holding ourselves to account. We are responsible for our working culture, the transparency of the decisions we take, how and to whom we distribute funding, and the way in which we develop relationships.

Our funding priorities

Trustees agreed a refresh of our strategy in October in 2020, focusing on our commitment to social justice and identifying six funding priorities where we wish to see change.

• Investing in young people
• Migration and integration
• Arts access and participation
• Education and learning through the arts
• Nurturing ideas and people
• Creating opportunities for people and communities in India

We also noted that we would need to remain flexible and to respond to the world as it changes.

You can find out more at our website. https://www.phf.org.uk/publications/strategy-2020/

Governance

Our Board is chaired by Jane Hamlyn and is made up of 10 unpaid trustees. There are various sub-Committees with delegated oversight of our work – this post works most closely with the HR Committee.

Our commitment to DEI

Our vision is at the heart of our purpose as a foundation. To achieve this, we need to tackle inequalities head-on and use all of our resources to drive positive change, so a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) sits at the centre of our strategy. It drives how we work, who we work with and how we make decisions, and it is as relevant and important for us as an employer and a business as it is for us as a grant maker and investor.

We have published a DEI statement on our website setting out our commitment and have in place an organisational DEI plan, overseen by a group of staff and trustees. We have a particular commitment to being an anti-racist organisation.

We recognise that we need support, expertise and challenge in making change and we expect to work with external individuals and agencies to achieve this throughout the life of the plan.

We will hold ourselves to some key principles as we develop this work:

• We will be open and share our learning as we go.
• We will involve all staff, trustees and advisors on the journey.
• We will resource the work effectively, giving it the time and space it needs to be done well.
• We will recognise that we do not have all the answers and work with experts of all kinds to get this right.
• We will collaborate with others to encourage change at a sector as well as organisational level.
• We will be brave – inviting conversations that will lead to meaningful change.