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How it works

The Lab is an ongoing process of sensing where we can be useful, developing alternative approaches to funding, and supporting collaborative action.

Our current workstreams were developed following earlier stages of research and development. These are in areas of:

Helping philanthropic funders go ‘Beyond ESG’
Evolving the tax system to serve life
Supporting the rights of nature movement in the UK

We also have a pipeline of possible workstreams ready to start, and have designed a Basecamp Training to help new funders to join.

“I feel really passionately about the importance of this work. The Lab is no idle experiment, it’s vital.”

Jonny Wates, Wates Family Enterprise Trust

Guiding principles

The Philanthropy Lab is based on the premise that to help create greater impact, we must change how philanthropy works.

To help us to do this, we worked with advisors and allies in the funding world to define a set of principles to guide our work. These are:

Placing life at the centre

Commitment to a systemic approach

Collective impact over attribution

Plurality of approaches and views

Learning, experimentation and inquiry

Actively addressing and disrupting power

Working from joy and fun

We believe that challenging ourselves to work in new ways, guided by these principles, will help open up to new forms of collaborative work and impact.

Join

The Philanthropy Lab is a virtual campus for funders to come together and work in new ways. It’s open to all types and sizes of funding entities, from individual philanthropists to foundations, although the participants must have decision-making power about grant making.

Learn more