Guest blog: new member network on economic justice

25 January 2022

Danielle Walker Palmour is the Director of the Friends Provident Foundation and creator and convenor of a new member-led network, economic justice. In this blog Danielle introduces the new network.

“It’s the economy, stupid” (James Carville, US political strategist. 1992)

As a trust, we have been funding work that explores how the economy might work better for society through the use of grants and investment capital since 2012. I am convening ACF’s newest member-led network on economics and social justice, supported by a number of colleagues in other ACF foundations such as Lankelly Chase Foundation and Power to Change. Together we hope to bring a range of perspectives to learn together about different aspects of the economy, its links to important social challenges that foundations are seeking to address and meet the movers and shakers shaping the new economic landscape. This blog is to introduce the new network and some of the ideas shaping its creation.

It can be argued – and often is – that the nature of the economy, how it works and where it fails, underpins much of domestic and international political debate. The language of markets, debt, assets, capital, employment, growth and the fairness of distribution are central to so many of the social issues we address as foundations. Who wins, who loses and why, are central questions our grants programmes grapple with. It has also emerged as an important consideration if global commitments to achieving net zero and hopes of “keeping 1.5 alive” will be met.

As foundations, the economy directly relates to the sources of our wealth as organisations if we have endowments or the cash flow of those who donate to us if we do not: inflation, regulation, deflation, bear or bull markets, ESG metrics, and the rises and falls of GDP have a material impact on our grant programmes and operations.

This new member network is being established as a base for learning what all this means in the context of philanthropy in the UK, bringing in expert knowledge as well as sharing our own experiences. We also hope to link to other member networks to explore how economic issues underpin and, in some cases, exacerbate problems they encounter – migration, homelessness, poverty, poor health, and racial and gender inequality – to name a few.

At our meetings, we plan to engage speakers with policy and academic expertise, lived experience and funding knowledge to share their perspectives on key issues, as well as giving funders the chance to think more broadly about how we can work more effectively from our many vantage points. We also hope to engage staff beyond grant staff as organisations that are embedded in the economy – as employers, procurers and investors.

Check out the members’ area on the ACF website for our next meeting – hope to see you there.

Danielle Walker Palmour is the Director of the Friends Provident Foundation, an independent grant-making charity established from unclaimed shares arising from the de-mutualisation of Friends Provident Life Office in 2001. Friends Provident Foundation focuses has a wider interest in the use of financial markets to produce social value and has led small trusts in social investment. Danielle is also a non-executive director of The National Lottery Community Fund, a trustee of local and national charities, a member of the Congress, and the York School of Business and Society Advisory Group both at the University of York UK. She serves on the Archbishop’s Council Investment Committee of the Church of England and is a trustee of Britain Yearly Meeting (Quakers). Previously, Danielle has held board directorships at Big Society Capital, regional NHS bodies as well as senior policy and research roles throughout the sector including the director of Policy and Practice Development at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, senior research roles at the Commission for Racial Equality and the Law Society of England and Wales, and advisory roles to HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, the Financial Services Authority.

We are always open to hearing members’ ideas for networks. If you would like to discuss establishing a new member network, get in touch via [email protected].