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Credit: Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash. Alt text: A globe on a desk.
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Last chance to sign up for NEXT online training this February!
Grantmakers from all funding organisations are welcome to join us virtually for our online “Intro to Modern Grantmaking” training, taking place over two short, after-hours workshops this February.
ALSO, we’re running two in person ‘Fundamentals of Modern Grantmaking’ training workshops in 2026. You can sign up below: |
Grantmaking news from beyond the anglosphere
As you might have noticed, this newsletter is written in English. Once you’ve recovered from this shock, you might realise that this means most of the stories we feature are from English-speaking grantmakers, mostly in the UK and the US.
We thought it would be interesting to dig into what notable grantmaking happenings have been going on elsewhere, and here is what we found: Switzerland. Switzerland is a lot smaller than the UK - it only has 13% of the population. But a recent study found that its foundations make £5.4bn of grants a year, or a whacking 69% of the UK total. Netherlands. A foundation set up by a royal princess was - rather weirdly - used by the Dutch government to deliver compensation for a huge government benefits cockup which harmed thousands of parents. If this sounds strange to you, it also did to the Dutch - the princess resigned in a cloud of mutual recriminations. Hungary. In Hungary the government has continued to try to pass laws the purpose of which are to stop funders sending money to nonprofit organisations which it deems to be “portraying Hungary negatively”. Classic authoritarian playbook stuff, sadly. Spain. The Financial Times has a fascinating long read of the 37bn EUR Caixa Foundation, which owns such big chunks of big Spanish companies like Telefonica that it can (and does) change who leads those companies. If you’re at a foundation agonising about how you might create social impact with your endowment, this is certainly a surprising take on that idea. Bonus surprise: features Opus Dei. (Article is behind paywall, sorry). Spain II. Unusually for Europe Spanish law obliges foundations to spend at least 70% of income on their goals, and crucially to do so within 4 years. We hadn’t previously come across any country in Europe where the law puts this kind of “You have to spend the money” pressure on foundations, something mostly associated with America. Netherlands. The Dutch Postcode lottery is growing, and is now the third biggest annual funder in the world (amongst private foundations at least.) Why pluck them from a sea of other large funders? Because their standard grants are five years unrestricted. South Korea. South Korea is home to a funder called the Beautiful Foundation, which might be the best funder name ever. It’s a sort of hybrid community foundation and DAF, with a very successful campaign to get over 20,000 people to give 1% of their income through it. Germany. An unusual legal regime in Germany historically let foundations formally establish themselves as either ‘in perpetuity’ funders which live off their endowments, or ‘limited life’ organisations, which burned down their money. This in its own right is unusual enough to be noteworthy, but we share it because there turned out to be a sort of hilarious bug in the law: you couldn’t convert a foundation from ‘perpetuity’ to ‘limited life’. This didn’t matter if everything was going great, but if you were set up as a perpetuity foundation and suddenly your assets didn’t generate any returns (because say… interest rates crashed) you were just stuck: can’t spend, can’t change, just frozen. This bug has been fixed in a new law passed in 2023, that also fixes a lot of other things. Notably the same law will bring about a central register of German foundations, something which hasn’t existed before and will doubtless interest fundraisers (and us)!
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Latest Reading, Watching & Listening - Modern Grantmaking recommends Speaking of movements, a global coalition of organizations advancing women’s rights has launched Accelerate Together, a new international initiative to mobilize $600 million USD annually in new funding for grassroots women-led movements around the world. The initiative responds to intensifying global challenges and to a growing body of research showing that strong, autonomous women’s movements are among the most effective drivers of lasting social change. A new series of ‘Break Fake Rules’ has started with Jamie Allison, Executive Director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, joining to discuss what fake rules need to be broken to relieve the pressure nonprofits are under at the outset of 2026. Finally, we’d like to give a shout out to the Better Funding Newsletter. If you’re into practical tools and funding practices that shift power, as well as insights and stories from the field in the widest sense, consider signing up.
How about a new job or trustee role in grantmaking? Coutts Foundation (UK) is hiring for a new trustee. This is a voluntary role. Deadline is 9am, 9 February 2026. Barrow Cadbury Trust (UK) is hiring for a Head of Migration. Salary is £55,170 per year. Deadline is 5pm, 13 February 2026. Buttle Trust (UK) is hiring for a CEO. Salary is £100k per year. Deadline is 16 February 2026. Impetus (UK) is hiring for an Investment Director. Salary is £64,471. Deadline is 11.59pm, 22 February 2026. Jack Petchey Foundation (UK) is hiring for a Grants Officer. Salary is £34,905 - £39,264. Deadline is 9am, 23 February 2026.
Want to see your job ad in next month’s newsletter? Ping us, it’s free! Just… #ShowTheSalary
Grantmaking ‘joke’ of the month
Q: What’s a grantmaker’s online dating bio?
A: Looking for innovation and risk-taking! Must have 10+ years of proven track record with zero failures.
Got any terrible or actually funny grantmaking jokes to share?......tell us.
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Who are we?
Gemma Bull and Tom Steinberg run Modern Grantmaking, and write this newsletter. We do consulting and training specifically for funders, and wrote a book on how to be a modern grantmaker, too. |
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