(5 minute read)
Published: 13 March 2025
Written by: Sufina Ahmad, Director
John Ellerman Foundation has been a longstanding supporter of the Foundation Practice Rating (FPR). The FPR is a rating system that assesses the practices of UK-based trusts and foundations in relation to diversity, accountability and transparency, allowing those rated to understand their strengths and weakness in these areas and how they can make improvements. At its core, the FPR seeks to be a support to those assessed and to the wider sector, which is why the assessment process and results are all publicly available through the Foundation Practice Rating website, which can be accessed by clicking here.
The assessments are carried out by Giving Evidence, a philanthropy research consultancy, and the FPR assigns a rating of A, B, C or D to each of the three ‘pillars’ of diversity, accountability and transparency, which then results in an overall rating being given. Friends Provident Foundation lead on the design and day to day running of the FPR. The FPR is a funder collaboration, with a number of different funders, including John Ellerman Foundation, all contributing funds and their ideas.
For the third year in a row, John Ellerman Foundation has achieved an A rating in the 2025 results for the FPR. We are very pleased about this, but just as we do every year, we have used our results to identify areas where we can make further improvements in relation to diversity, accountability and transparency.
Our results from last year spurred us on to make the following three commitments:
- Publishing our DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Data Standard results, having implemented this in April 2023, and the agreed next steps relating to this.
- Designing and publishing a new accessibility statement for our website
- Implementing the findings of our website accessibility audit.
We are pleased to report that we have delivered on all three commitments. Our DEI Data Standard results were published in our Annual Report for 2023/24 and to a blog on our website published in July 2024, as part of a wider set of updates relating to all the DEI work we were doing at the time. This blog can be accessed by clicking here.
The process of making our website accessible has been a huge learning experience for us, including writing our first ever accessibility statement for our website. Originally, we invested in a software tool that placed an accessibility ‘overlay’ onto our existing website. However, our accessibility audit has meant that we have now made our core or underlying website accessible, which we were told is a much more effective approach and increases the compatibility between our website and access tools that might be used by people with access needs using our website, e.g. screen reading software.
We also used our feedback to instigate some further changes in relation to accessibility and inclusion. We updated our funding guidelines to offer applicants the option of submitting an application in another format, other than written, and we made it clearer that applicants can discuss their accessibility requirements with our Grants Officer before making a submission to us. We also updated our publicly available DEI Policy to include our position on setting diversity targets for staff and Trustees. Having explored this topic with the Board and team, as well as reviewing the practices of peer organisations, we have decided not to set targets. We feel that the small size of our team and Board (currently seven staff and eight Trustees) places us at risk of being unable to appoint someone from a diverse background because we are exceeding targets that have been set. However, as a UK-wide funder, we recognise the importance of seeking to reflect minoritised UK demographics in our work. We do however continue to share our staff and Trustee DEI data annually in our Annual Report and Accounts.
The FPR has now been going for four years. A lot has changed in the last few years and it is important to consider if an initiative like this still matters. Given that this year there were eight out of 100 trusts and foundations that achieved an A rating, then clearly there is still much work to be done to get to a full sweep of A ratings. This in itself demonstrates that the FPR’s work is not yet done. We know that progress is being made though, with the FPR able to evidence that there has been a material and statistically significant improvement in performance for the trusts and foundations that can be assessed through this initiative. Anything that makes trusts and foundations more diverse, accountable and transparent and does so in a way that has been designed collaboratively with funders and organisations in the wider sectors that funders work in and provide funding to, feels important to carry on working with and supporting.
As an individual organisation with a positive rating, one could argue whether the assessment is that useful for us. The short answer is – Yes, it is. We always value and appreciate receiving and reviewing our assessment feedback. It helps us to see gaps or issues in our delivery and approach that are not always noticeable to us. The FPR is also very good at highlighting the work of others in relation to each criteria, thus providing us with access to ideas and expertise from across the sector in a way that we would struggle to otherwise – given that we are a team of seven and there are only so many people we can reach out to and connect with and learn from.
We feel that the FPR is an important way in which positive work that is happening across UK trusts and foundations can be amplified and multiplied. It also shines a light on areas where much improvement and progress is still needed. We look forward to seeing the ways in which the FPR will continue to drive forward progress both in our own organisation and across UK trusts and foundations in the coming years.