CEO blog | Reflections from ACF's annual conference: future-ready foundations

8 December 2025

ACF's chief executive, Carol Mack, reflects on a brilliant day.

What an incredible day we shared at ACF's annual conference on 26 November! 300 of our members came together in London, representing foundations from across the UK. You could feel the energy in the room – the buzz of being together in person, the richness of the conversations, and an unmistakable sense of shared purpose.

Our theme this year was 'Future-ready foundations: building resilience, relevance, and readiness'. We kicked off with some live polling to gauge the mood. When we asked how confident people felt about the outlook for foundations, the average score was 3.5 out of 5. Not bad, but room for improvement. We'd come back to that question at the end of the day.

Don’t beat your head against the wall!

Professor Sir Geoff Mulgan opened with a thought-provoking keynote that ranged across the landscape of challenges we're facing – from the crucial need for truth amid rampant misinformation, to shaping AI to serve our needs, declining birth rates, and concerning trends in cognitive decline among young adults. He emphasised strategic philanthropy's role in identifying where it can make the biggest difference.

Here's what really landed with me: while things feel pretty bleak right now, Geoff reminded us that statistically, trust in society has actually increased.

He closed with a quote from Antonio Gramsci about the old dying and the new not yet being born, and how in this interval, “many morbid symptoms appear”. As Gramsci also commented, if you beat your head against the wall, it's your head that breaks, not the wall. I think everyone left feeling a little more empowered and a little less tempted to beat their heads against the wall!

Radical optimism

Throughout the day, I kept coming back to future studies scholar Professor Sohail Inayatullah’s three forces: the weight of the past, the push of the present, and the pull of the future.

The weight of the past is very real. Collectively, UK foundations carry an extraordinary legacy stretching back generations, some even for centuries. But this history is complex. Many foundations are now confronting difficult origins and asking tough questions about power, purpose, and whose voices have been centred. This work takes real courage.

The push of the present is relentless. When we polled delegates on which trends will have the greatest impact on their foundations, economy and inequality topped the list, followed by society and politics – public trust, regulation, polarisation and changing demographics. You're navigating all of this while balancing immediate crises with longer-term missions: ensuring the urgent doesn't crowd out the important.

Then there's the pull of the future. As John F Kennedy said: "Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future". This demands bold imagination – not just surviving these headwinds but learning to thrive.

David Holdsworth, chief executive of the Charity Commission for England and Wales, offered a powerful metaphor in his closing address: foundations as ancient oaks – they have deep roots, weather storms, and shelter entire ecosystems with a timescale that transcends generations. His message was clear: every foundation exists because of an act of radical optimism, a commitment to future generations. Be thoughtful as you grow new branches but don’t damage the roots – your charitable purposes aren't just history, they're your legal and moral compass.

A shift in confidence?

By the end of the day, we returned to our opening question: how confident do you feel about the outlook for foundations? The score had risen from 3.5 to 3.7. Not a huge leap, but meaningful. Something had shifted – perhaps a reminder that we're not alone in facing these challenges, that the brilliance and passion within our member community is our collective strength.

And here's where something really interesting emerged. When we asked delegates what actions their foundations might take to become more future-ready, the overwhelming response was collaboration: working together, sharing power, forging new types of alliances.

We're the Association OF charitable foundations, not FOR charitable foundations. At ACF, we're here to listen and work alongside you, creating brave spaces for collective learning through our Stronger Foundations framework and championing your interests as the voice of the sector.

Thanks to everyone who made it such a brilliant day. Together, we're not just responding to change – we're shaping the future itself.

For more information about ACF's work supporting UK foundations, get in touch at [email protected].

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