Paul Hamlyn Foundation

Who we are

Vision and Mission

Our vision

A just society in which everyone, especially young people, can realise their full potential and enjoy fulfilling and creative lives.

Our mission

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.

Purposeful, equitable relational grant-making

We want to be more than a transactional funder. To achieve this, we want to work alongside the people and groups we fund, acknowledging their expertise and welcoming their insights, and drawing on them to inform and develop the way we do things. We use a variety of funding approaches, from support for research and development through to endowments, in response to the needs of the organisations we work with and the conditions they face. Our impulse is to be flexible as possible, and we are extending our commitment to long-term funding and to providing core support when it is helpful to do so.

Investing in young people

Much of our grant-making aims to benefit young people, but it is the groups and organisations who work directly with them who often make the most difference, especially for young people who face complex transitions to adulthood. We want to support organisations at different stages of development to improve, consolidate and spread practices that empower young people to shape their lives and lead change.

Our UK strategy

We launched our current UK strategy in September 2020. It is built around key 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

Our commitment to social justice underpins all these priorities. We are particularly interested in supporting individuals and organisations that share this commitment, and in funding work that:

• Strengthens civil society
• Supports social innovation
• Champions people’s voice and agency
• Responds to digital transformation
• Responds to the climate emergency

Our activities across the UK are explained in the Our work in the UK section of this website. You can also download the strategy document from the link on the right.