News & Insight

21st October 2022

WE ARE 20!

This week, Philanthropy Company celebrated 20 years of making a difference.

Caroline Underwood OBE (CEO, Philanthropy Company) was joined by Jonathon Reekie CBE (Director, Somerset House Trust) and Sir Kenneth Olisa, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London to celebrate Philanthropy Company’s 20th Birthday.

Caroline Underwood OBE set up Philanthropy Company in 2002 to help more organisations and individuals seek and channel fundraising to deliver positive social impact. Over the last two decades she and her team have worked with philanthropists, boards, trustees and teams to deliver impact, widen participation, advance social purpose and drive positive change.

Over that time, we have worked with over 150 organisations in the UK and around the world on projects at the heart of community, charity, culture and commerce. Through our clients and partners, we have helped to build physical infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, universities, galleries and concert halls; and social infrastructure – developing community resilience during the pandemic; providing relief to families in times of crisis; enabling churches and historic buildings to fundraise for their heritage assets; and nurturing the talent and potential of young leaders and change makers from varied backgrounds.

There are so many highlights and wonderful clients and projects. Amongst them:

In arts, heritage and culture: we conducted a feasibility study for a major capital campaign for Somerset House; and worked with the Foundation for FutureLondon, which was created to support East Bank, the new powerhouse for innovation, creativity and learning on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London. We helped the Mary Rose Trust move from a capital campaign to revenue fundraising; and provided research and guidance into naming opportunities for the British Library’s major capital campaign. We helped create the capital campaign and secured major grants which formed the bedrock of the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance’s centenary anniversary fundraising.
In sport: we delivered a programme of fundraising training to the community of sports governing bodies, through Sport England, so that individual staff were given the knowledge, skills and confidence to begin fundraising.
In health: we provided strategic capital campaign guidance and direct fundraising support to Prevent Breast Cancer to support the National Breast Imaging Academy, a crucial project to address the serious workforce shortages within breast imaging; and we have helped the Myrovlytis Trust through a governance review, devising a new fundraising strategy, and hands-on support for Trusts and Foundations, including training for the existing team.
For communities and in the face of the pandemic: we helped the National Emergencies Trust raise £99m, reaching those most affected; advised Captain Tom; and helped hundreds of churches up and down the land with the tools they needed to fundraise for pandemic support through our work with Ecclesiastical.
And not forgetting that we have helped Oxford University raise over £1billion through working on the Oxford Thinking campaign!

Recruiting the best talent is key for all of us, and we’re proud to have helped Garfield Weston Foundation, the British Library, Exeter College Oxford, the National Trust, Sailors’ Society, the Roundhouse and the Churches Conservation Trust find people for both permanent and interim roles.

And we’ve helped nurture new talent and opportunities for young people through our work with the Heritage Alliance and CASE.

Our 20th birthday event was held at Somerset House in London on Wednesday. Jonathan Reekie CBE, Director of Somerset House Trust and Sir Kenneth Olisa, Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London joined Caroline Underwood OBE and guests.

Caroline said: “I’m proud and happy at the contribution Philanthropy Company has made over the last two decades to deliver positive social change, raising hundreds of millions and benefiting thousands of people. But now, more than ever, philanthropy has a critical role to play and we look forward to the future – to grow, to continue our work to widen participation, deliver greater impact and help leave the world a little better.”

Jonathan Reekie CBE, Director of Somerset House Trust added: “We were delighted to have Philanthropy Company at Somerset House to celebrate its 20th birthday. We go back many years and wish Caroline and the team a very happy birthday.”

If you would like to hear more about our work and explore how we can help you, please get in touch: enquiries@philanthropycompany.com