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William Grant Foundation Annual Review 2020

  • Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
  • Type: News Item
  • Published: 26th April 2021
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Chairman's message and report released.

As the pandemic took hold last spring, obtaining intelligence became William Grant Foundation’s number one priority. As a grant-making organisation they’re always at least at one degree of separation from the work being done by charities on the ground.

That’s always a challenge in understanding needs, but especially when those needs are changing week by week. So, they spent a lot of 2020 getting perspectives about the unfolding pandemic and its indirect effects, not just from the charities and organisations funded but also from statutory bodies, charity support groups and other grant-makers. This helped to shape their view of the situation at the time and of scenarios that might play out.

Concrete facts were in short supply but they asked the most pertinent questions we could, often existential ones about charities’ immediate sustainability. They didn’t want to be in charity leaders’ faces more than necessary, but actually found that Zoom check-ins gave rich and actionable intelligence that enabled them to use one of the hallmarks of their grant making style – an ability to move quickly and flexibly when needed. That included placing ‘bets’ in some collective funding initiatives very early in the crisis, in parallel with work in targeted sectors.

This Annual Review will give you some impressions of how they’ve responded and some insights into the efforts of third sector organisations right across Scotland. They’re proud to have been able to play a part in keeping many of them rolling and in many cases innovating. Many good things will come out of what’s been achieved in a turbulent year.

Chairman, Nigel Woof says “I’m immensely grateful to our small, talented and dedicated team, and to the William Grant & Sons family business which, despite the massive commercial uncertainties last spring, committed right from the beginning of the crisis to sustaining fully the Foundation’s funding into 2021 and beyond”.

For the full review, visit .

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