(4 minute read)
Published: 24 September 2026
Written by: Sufina Ahmad, Director of John Ellerman Foundation
Our blog is one of the most common ways in which we share more about the progress we are making on different aspects of John Ellerman Foundation’s work, in relation to our investing, grantmaking and wider operations. On the latter, this includes things like our strategy, our impact, updates relating to our staffing and our governance, and work on topics like diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
DEI matters to us deeply and has done for many years. Since 2020/21, we have committed to a DEI Accountability Plan that we review and build on each year. We use blog posts like this one to share more about the progress we are making in relation to DEI, including by offering reflections on what we have been learning. We last posted an update about our work on DEI in August 2025.
For us, our DEI work is an essential way in which we can be a more transparent, accountable and effective charitable grantmaking organisation. It is also the way in which we proactively seek to address the fact that a failure to prioritise and understand DEI within our work means that we risk investing and distributing our funds inequitably and in ways that harm, rather than advance, wellbeing for people, society and the natural world.
We feel that DEI must be applied to all that we do, which can be summarised as: the management of our underlying endowment; our grantmaking; our recruitment, retention and progression of staff and Trustees; our internal and external communications; and our analysis of the derivation of our wealth through our History Project.
How do we develop our DEI Accountability Plan
Our DEI Accountability Plan has been developed using the following inputs, which have been based on feedback and insights from Trustees and staff:
- Our previous DEI Accountability Plans, first approved in January 2021 followed by updated versions approved every year between 2022 to 2026.
- Reports from sector bodies and initiatives we are members of relating to DEI, for example the work of the Association of Charitable Foundations, the DEI Data Standard and the Foundation Practice Rating.
- Feedback and insights from relevant applicants and grant-holders.
- Our DEI Policy and Recruitment Policy – both of which are publicly available on our website.
- Research and inputs relating to DEI that informed our previous strategy for 2022 to 2025 and our current strategy for 2025 to 2030. On the latter, this includes the definition and analysis of wellbeing, advancing justice, and changemaking as outlined in our strategy and funding guidelines.
Highlights from our DEI work over the last 12 months
In the last 12 months, some of the areas we have made progress in are:
- Sharing our views and perspectives on DEI publicly, including at the DSC Diversity Conference in December 2025, and the NHF Diversity in Housing Conference in February 2026, and in a joint blog with Asif Afridi, CEO of Barrow Cadbury Trust on DEI and disclosure of staff and Trustee diversity data, which was promoted via the Foundation Practice Rating in March 2026.
- Undertaking work relating to our governance, based on the findings of a Governance Review we commissioned in 2025. DEI is an underlying consideration that has been embedded into this work.
- Working on making our external publications more accessible, by ensuring they include summary versions of the information being shared, e.g. the strategy has a two-page summary, the Annual Report and Accounts has a timeline version of the activities that took place in the year, and we produce blogs about our publications and these offer summarised versions of their content. Other options could include an Executive Summary, infographic-based summaries, and easy read versions of the documents.
- Introducing new way of accessing pre-application advice in the form of a monthly question and answer session online. This is in addition to seeking support over email, telephone or a one-to-one video meeting. We also added an FAQ to the funding guidelines to say that the main way to apply is a written application submitted through our online grants portal, but that if an applicant has accessibility needs they would like to discuss before submitting then they can do so by getting in touch with our Grants Officer.
Highlights from our DEI work over the last few years
We are pleased that we have made good progress on different aspects of our DEI work. Some of our highlights since 2020/21 include:
Our history: In May 2023, we produced ‘John Ellerman Foundation: A Historical Review’ which can be accessed in full on our website, by clicking here. It provides the most comprehensive historical overview of the history of the Foundation and its antecedent charitable trusts, and it presents clear insights into the philanthropic, business and personal inclinations of John Reeves Ellerman, 1st Baronet (Bt.), Order of the Companion of Honour (C. H.) (1862–1933), Annie Winifred (Bryher) Ellerman (1894–1983), and John Reeves Ellerman, 2nd Bt. (1909–1973). The latter was our founder. We also supported the development of the Origins of Wealth Toolkit, produced by the Association of Charitable Foundations.
Our investing: Under our Investment Policy, which is updated annually, and was last updated earlier in 2026, we seek to use our influence as an asset owner to promote corporate activity which furthers our aim and challenge corporate behaviour that is poorly aligned to our aim and values, whilst also generating financial returns to sustain our grantmaking activities. We encourage our fund managers take a systemic and effective approach to stewardship and engagement, and ask them to actively engage with underlying investee companies or sectors where specific issues are identified that we feel are misaligned with our organisational aim, values and approach. We are prioritising taking systemic and collaborative approaches to our stewardship work, which means working with our fund managers, other like-minded investors and investor initiative groups, in relation to specific engagement activities relating to our environmental and societal aim. Currently the main focus of our work with fund managers is to use our influence as an asset owner to drive up responsible investing practices in the industry. Our aim is to support long-term environmental and societal sustainability, with particular focus on helping address the systemic impact of the triple planetary crisis and reducing suffering for people, society and the natural world.
Our grantmaking: We have adopted the DEI Data Standard in our grantmaking, and publish our DEI Data Standard data annually in our Annual Report and Accounts
Learning: We participated in different DEI training courses, and regularly attend the Trauma Informed Grantmaking Community of Practice.
Our reporting on DEI: We report on our progress on DEI in our Annual Report and Accounts, at sector events, and through blog posts like this. We also ensure accountability on DEI through our publicly available DEI Policy and our Recruitment Policy.
Accessibility: We updated our application guidance to include accessibility information for applicants in our funding guidelines and our website. We now provide information to applicants on what will be covered in second stage visits before the visits take place. We continue to work on making our website more accessible by implementing the findings of our website accessibility audit on an ongoing basis.
Governance: We set up and ran our inaugural Board Shadowing Scheme in 2024. The Scheme supported three people from diverse backgrounds with lived experience of poverty to participate in our governance processes for six months, as active observers and contributors (i.e. without the ability to vote on decisions).
We set up the Scheme so that we could receive new perspectives and learning, and to support the diversification of Trustee boards within charities, especially in the trusts and foundations sector – with statistical data from the Association of Charitable Foundations, Reach Volunteering, Getting On Board, Young Trustees Movement and Action for Trustee Racial Diversity showing a lack of diversity on charity Boards. Our Scheme also meant that individuals who might not consider Trustee roles were able to gain meaningful Board experience. We completed a Learning Review of our Board Shadowing Scheme, which can be read in full on our website by clicking here.
What will be working on in the next 12 months
The next 12 months will be about continuing to embed our existing DEI work, as summarised above. However, in our latest DEI Accountability Plan, we also agreed to work on the following:
- Continue to seek out opportunities for staff and Trustees to learn more about DEI in the context of our work.
- Complete an access audit of our physical premises and act on the findings of this.
- Continue to work on making our website more accessible, which if capacity and budget allows, may include commissioning the build of a new website where access is built into the website from the outset.
Some final thoughts
Our work on DEI remains an area of ongoing commitment. It is not the kind of work that finishes, instead it evolves. Having our DEI Accountability Plan helps us to ensure that we have clear processes in place to support our DEI work across all aspects of our work. For us, our DEI work is not a tick box or nice to have exercise, where we seek simply to be compliant be it with sector norms or suggestions of best or promising practice or the Equalities Act 2010 simply for the sake of it.