Philanthropy
From a philanthropic perspective, the Company has a rich history of supporting organisations embedded in their local communities, working to bring about positive change for those they support.
By supporting the communities that surround Haberdasher schools and churches, the Company’s grant-making is fundamental in fulfilling its Purpose to “empower young people from every background to fulfil their potential through our schools and by supporting their communities.”
By looking at the challenges a community faces through this wider, holistic lens, we aim to support our young people with a 360 degree approach that goes beyond their school education.
Our grant-making is therefore underpinned by listening to the communities we serve, and the charities that work with them. We appreciate that the experts are those rooted in those places, living and working there.
The intention is that our grant-making approach might offer something relational and even transformational through our involvement with charity partners. The listening leads us to ask two questions: alongside a financial grant, what do our charity partners need? What can the Company offer by way of added value through volunteering or pro bono support?
The majority of grant-holders are those working with young people, providing a safety net to the pupils in Haberdasher schools and their surrounding areas. There is a focus on areas where young people experience multiple levels of disadvantage.
Within some of our grant programmes the Company awards unrestricted, multi-year grants when these are more appropriate. Other programmes are restricted, honouring the objects specified by those who entrusted their gifts to the Company.
The Company also funds young people starting out in the fashion and textile sector. This creates a modern thread to the ancient roots of the Company: the art of haberdashery.
In total, the Company awards grants totalling over £1 million each year, from its three grant-making foundations: Haberdashers’ Benevolent Foundation, Haberdashers’ Educational Foundation and Haberdashers’ Christian Foundation.
This is in addition to nearly £4 million from the schools’ endowment funds provided by our original benefactors that goes directly to support our four school groups.
Engaged in the training and apprenticeship of young people since its initiation, the Company’s interests and efforts in this area grew as we moved away from our ancient trade of haberdashery and into education more broadly.
We are deeply grateful to our early benefactors who left sums of money to the Company to fund education and schools.
Centuries later, the careful stewarding of this seed funding forms the endowment funds that support our four school groups today.
Fundamentally it also includes more than £1 million from our three grant-making foundations in awards to its charity partners, schools and churches as they further support our young people.
This is allocated and distributed through the Haberdashers’ Foundation.
But the Company has aspirations to deliver more in terms of the work it does with young people, and this is where the Haberdashers’ Foundation comes in.
The Haberdashers’ Benevolent Foundation. This supports charities that address the disadvantage experienced by young people in our schools. It funds work with 0-5 year olds, young people who experience disadvantage (social mobility), young people with experience of custody and young people who experience homelessness.
The Haberdashers’ Educational Foundation. These restricted funds award grants to our schools and their pupils, often meeting the needs of young people on free school meals, offering enrichment or cultural capital opportunities.
The Haberdashers’ Christian Foundation. This supports the Company’s eight Church of England churches and their ministry.
The Haberdashers’ Foundation is the means by which we raise additional funds to grow what we’re able to achieve within the Company’s purpose.
By raising funds we can increase the Company’s current grant-making capacity and have an even greater impact on the lives of young people.
Partnering with more charities will enable us to strengthen the work we do.
Developing long term relationships with charities will help deepen the work we do.
And engaging those charities, with the skills, expertise and experience of the members of the Company, will help transform the work we do.
Over 200 members of the Haberdashers’ Company give regularly to the Haberdashers’ Foundation.
If you are a member of the Company and wish to create or increase your donation, we would be hugely grateful.
Member of the Freedom, Director of Engagement and Influence at South London Mission and keynote speaker at the charities engagement evening 2024
£4.5 million +
£3,120,666
To our Schools
£1,300,000
To our Charity Partners, School Pupils and University Scholars
£30,000
To our Churches
How we work
We endeavour to award grants in a ‘Funder Plus’ space. The Company actively seeks means by which it can add value to its charity partners, through the time, skills and professional expertise of its members.
In its broadest sense, this is what we call the Haberdashers’ Advantage. It is the tangible support that our communities feel from all sides, as we look to be the best possible partner in the truest sense of the word.
Alongside the grant-making that the Company provides, the volunteer involvement of our members enables our partnership with them to elevate their work for greater impact with their communities.
CHARITY PARTNERS
How we work
In 2021 the Company signed up to the Open & Trusting funding commitments. By proactively seeking ways to offer flexible funding to charity partners, we can deliver better outcomes for communities.
These commitments are peer reviewed and renewed every two years, ensuring that these are live, relevant and evolving commitments.
The Company understands the pressures on leaders of small charities. In 2024 a Resilience Fund was created to provide additional funds for leaders that would support them in the areas of organisational sustainability, growth and succession planning.
Examples of grants include support for management coaching, costs for Strategy Away Days and a contribution to digital systems development.
The Company has published its grants data on 360Giving since 2023. We believe that by being transparent about the grants we make, this helps charities understand our priorities and identify us as a possible funder.
Twice a year the Company offers the chance for the leaders from its charity partners to come together to listen, share and learn from each other. Leaders of small charities often work in isolated circumstances, with little infrastructure support.
These opportunities are part of our 'Funder Plus' or Haberdashers' Advantage commitment to add value over and above the financial.
They provide a safe space within which leaders can reflect on their challenges with trusted colleagues and move forward within those challenges.
Each year the Company holds its Charities Engagement Evening: the chance to bring together charity partners and members, to see where there is alignment between the needs of the charities and the skills of its members.
For Haberdasher members, this helps them understand the reality on the ground for charities and the work they do. For charities, they can share their stories and highlight their areas of need. Together, they can work towards creating positive change by working collaboratively.
The Company is a proud member of London Funders. Membership of this organisation helps ensure that we have access to learning opportunities, best practice in grant-making, relevant updates from within the funding sector and participation in thematic networks (children and young people).
The team
Director for Charities
Susan has a wide range of experience in the charity sector, including fundraising and communications. In her grant-making role at the Company she places great emphasis on the role of collaboration and partnerships in creating social impact. She has helped transform the philanthropic work of the Company, and rooted its grant-making in the Haberdashers’ Advantage space by adding value to our charity partners through the time and expertise of the Company’s membership.
Grants and Office Administrator
Jasmine is a Grant and Office Administrator who works closely with the Director for Charities to support philanthropic work. Her responsibilities include processing grant applications, assisting the wider administrative team, maintaining accurate records, and ensuring the timely payment of grants, donations, and student scholarships.
Philanthropy
The Haberdashers’ Company has defined Focus Areas and Geographies within which it makes its grants.
We fund charities and Community Interest Companies that work with young people up to the age of 30.
Each of our geographies closely relates to where there are Haberdasher schools and/or churches in order to fulfil our purpose and empower young people from every background to fulfil their potential through their schools and by supporting their communities.
Who we work with
Foundation Years: 0-5 year olds
Young People who experience disadvantage (social mobility)
Young People with experience of homelessness
Young People with experience of the custody system
Our Geographies
These focus areas have been connected to Company life for centuries and can typically trace their roots back to locations in which Haberdashers lived and worked. The four areas often include the locations of Haberdasher schools, churches and historic almshouses, and today, we have also added charity partners to that list. This synergy, as well as the shared proximity between our overlapping areas of work, enables each part of the Haberdasher community to come together in support of our shared purpose of "empowering young people from every background to fulfil their potential through our schools and by supporting their communities."
Grants Applications
Our next round of Grant Applications is now live.
Please click here to find out more.
It is open to small charities with an annual income of up to £500,000, though preference is given to those with an income of less than £250,000. A Small Grant is an award of up to £5,000.
Trustees proactively seek out organisations that work within our Focus Areas and Geographies and complement the work of Haberdasher schools in south London and Telford, Shropshire. As such, it is a closed programme and not open to applications.
The Company has one fund (Haberdashers’ Educational Foundation/Thomas Arno) that is available to present and past Haberdasher pupils. Please contact us here.
The Company does not accept unsolicited applications unless they fall within the Small Grants programme.
Who we work with
The connections with our eight church patronages have a centuries-long and rich history. Our affiliations with these Church of England churches began almost 400 years ago through the generosity of Haberdasher benefactors. In the 21st century we actively maintain these partnerships as we support them in their work and ministry.
Who we work with
Dame Mary Weld, in her will of 1623, gave money for the purchase of three patronages by the Company: St. Peter’s with All Saints, Chertsey; Albrighton, Shropshire (now the United Benetice of Albrighton, Boningale and Donington); Wigston Magna, Leicestershire.
Meanwhile, the patronages of St John the Baptist, Hoxton, All Saints, Hatcham, and St Catherine’s, Hatcham result from the former Jones Lectureship Charity.
St John the Baptist church had links to the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hospital School in nearby Pitfield St; All Saints is currently involved with local schools, including Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham College; in 1892 the Company provided the land and money to build St Catherine’s.
Edmund Hammond, in his will of 1638, gave the Company a sum to purchase the Church livings of Awre and Blakeney. The Will of Thomas Aldersey, one of four principal Haberdasher benefactors, appointed the Company patron of St Boniface, Bunbury, Cheshire in 1594 as part of a project to benefit local people.
Start today
Gerry Williams – member of the Livery and volunteer with charity partner No Going Back
The majority of the Company’s grant holders are small-medium charities. Many of them don’t have access to vital infrastructure support (such as marketing, fundraising, HR, operations, IT) and can struggle because of this.
If you would like to explore this way of supporting the Company’s work, contact our Director for Charities here or via 020 7246 9985.
