The BGF Foundation is an independent charitable foundation backed by BGF, helping ambitious charities strengthen, sustain and scale their impact for young people across the UK, combining long-term, unrestricted funding with business expertise and strategic support.
This approach is informed by a Board of Trustees with experience across charity leadership, grant-making, investment and responsible business. Each brings a different perspective on the challenges charities face and the support they need to thrive.
For Trustees’ Week, four of the Foundation’s trustees share perspectives on what charities need to become stronger, and what businesses and funders can learn from listening to them.
Understanding the realities of running a charity
For Arti Sharma, CEO of nurtureuk, the challenges of leading a charity are familiar. While the priority is always the children and young people an organisation exists to support, leaders also have to make decisions about staffing, finances and the systems needed to keep their services running.
“When you’re leading a charity, it’s very easy for the next urgent need to take priority over the things that would make the organisation stronger in the long run. But investing in your team, improving systems and having time to plan aren’t extras. They’re an important part of making sure you can continue delivering well.”
Jo Hannan, Head of the Fusion21 Foundation, approaches these questions from a grant-maker’s perspective. Her experience across the public and voluntary sectors has involved working with organisations to understand local needs and how funding can make a difference.
“As a funder, it’s tempting to focus on what a grant will produce and how quickly you can measure it. But sometimes the most valuable thing funding gives a charity is the breathing room to recruit the right person, improve a process or make a change they’ve been putting off. If we want charities to become more resilient, we need to recognise the value of that too.”
What business experience can bring
Other trustees bring experience from supporting businesses through growth and change.
Jill Williams, Regional Portfolio Partner at BGF, works with businesses across the North of England and Midlands, supporting their leadership teams and helping them prepare for long-term growth.
There are useful parallels with the charity sector, although the two operate with different purposes, resources and pressures.
“A charity isn’t a business, and it shouldn’t be treated as one. But many of the questions leaders face are familiar: do we have the right information to make decisions, the right people around us, and the capacity to take on what comes next? I’ve seen how much difference getting those things right can make when an organisation is trying to grow.”
Sarah Gillard, CEO of A Blueprint for Better Business, brings another perspective. Her work focuses on how businesses can put people and wider society at the heart of their purpose, and what that means for the decisions they make.
“Businesses don’t always need to arrive with a fully formed offer of help. Often the more useful starting point is to listen, understand what a charity is trying to achieve and work out whether you genuinely have something to contribute. The best partnerships are built on that understanding, rather than assumptions about what support should look like.
“A financial donation is always helpful, but often even more value can be found with some creative thinking and collaborative discussions about how a business’s skills, assets, resources and connections can support a charity’s goals.”
Bringing these perspectives into the Foundation’s strategy
Earlier this year, the BGF Foundation’s trustees approved a new strategy under the ambition: Stronger charities. Greater impact. Better futures for young people. The strategy builds on the Foundation’s existing approach, with a clearer focus on strengthening the organisations behind the work that benefits young people.
For charity partners, this means having the flexibility to decide how funding is used, alongside opportunities to access practical support in areas such as finance, leadership, governance, technology and impact measurement. The support will look different depending on each charity’s priorities, capacity and stage of development.
It also reflects a wider ambition to encourage businesses to contribute their expertise and networks in ways that are genuinely useful to charities. The Foundation’s close relationship with BGF provides access to people and experience that charity partners might otherwise struggle to reach.
The different perspectives on the Board help inform how the Foundation approaches these decisions, including when to offer support, what that support should involve and how to balance immediate needs with longer-term ambitions.
This Trustees’ Week, the Foundation thanks its trustees for the time, experience and judgement they contribute, and for helping shape an approach that starts with what charities need to do their work well.
