Charitable foundations continue to lack initiatives to improve diversity, according to new research.
According to the annual Foundation Practice Rating (FPR) 2024-25 report, none of the 100 foundations it assessed scored an A for its diversity practices.
The FPR rated the 100 charitable foundations of different sizes and types from A to D on their diversity, accountability and transparency.
Of the three domains considered, foundations performed the least well in diversity.
This year no foundation scored an A in diversity. Only one foundation has scored an A over FPR’s four years of conducting the annual report, and it was in the third year.
By comparison, more than half scored an A on transparency. While 44 foundations got a D on diversity and 13 foundations scored nothing at all.
It found that combined scores show gradual improvement over the past four years since it started to record foundations’ activities but that further progress was needed.
Lack of websites
For 2024-25, the FPR found that 21 out of 100 foundations had no website.
Some foundations that had websites were “very cluttered” or “limited”, making it difficult for potential applicants to navigate, it found. While none of the 12 foundations that rated D in all three domains has a website.
The report draws a fresh cohort each year so it does not assess the same foundations every year, though there is some overlap from year to year.
This year, it found that only seven out of 100 foundations published robust analyses of their own effectiveness.
As in previous years, the foundations scoring A overall were diverse in size and Structure including Wellcome, the Corra Foundation and the John Ellerman Foundation.
Community foundations have been outperforming the average foundation “by an appreciable margin”, it found.
Two of the largest five foundations, by giving budget, scored C overall (Gatsby Charitable Trust and Quadrature Climate Foundation).
Foundations with five or fewer trustees were much more likely to be rated D than foundations with more trustees, it found.
Meanwhile, ratings of A overall were unique to foundations with six or more trustees.
Poor ratings (D overall) were unique to foundations with 10 or fewer staff, a similar finding to the previous year’s report.
‘Foundations still have significant work to do’
Danielle Walker Palmour, director of Friends Provident Foundation which led the report, said: “The intention of FPR is to make foundations aware of some of the things they’re doing or not doing, and which they could be doing.
“Often, these things can go unnoticed because the people working in foundations are so fully concentrated on doing the best they can for their grantees.
“Many of these organisations are doing fantastic work, and it’s a pity that areas like diversity, accountability and transparency are falling by the wayside.
“We hope this will help them address those shortcomings and provide an even better service.”
Lead researcher Caroline Fiennes said: “We are encouraged to see ongoing improvements, but foundations still have significant work to do, particularly in diversity and accessibility.
“The feedback that we hear from foundations indicates that FPR continues to prompt foundations to improve, which is great.”
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