Our mission
Working in partnership with other charitable organisations, our mission is to provide financial resources to grassroots projects that make a tangible and lasting improvement to the lives of people suffering acute hardship.
What we do
Working in partnership with other charitable trusts and organisations, we provide financial resources to practical, grassroots projects that make a tangible and lasting improvement to the lives of people suffering acute hardship.
A beautiful future
We work towards a world where:
- People are no longer cold and hungry, and no longer suffer from curable diseases
- People in poverty have the means to care for themselves and their families
- Vulnerable people are cared for with love and respect and able to lead healthy and fulfilling lives
- Women are treated with respect and given the same opportunities as men
We do this by supporting projects that:
- Improve access to education, healthcare and safe water by developing local community infrastructure
- Increase household food, health and income security by supporting livelihood development
- Focus on sustainable, transformative change, rather than aid or crisis
Our values
Care: We care about people in genuine need and who may be rooted in poverty or lack opportunities to change their lives for good.
Empowerment: We always work to enable people to help themselves. We take a grassroots approach to our work, enabling people within communities to identify and bring the change that will enable the greatest impact and transformation to their lives.
Trust: We always deliver on our commitments.
Equality: We believe in the right of all people to fair and equal treatment. We use clear and transparent processes to maintain our ethical approach and we only work with others who can also commit to our beliefs.
Sustainability: We work to make improvements that create lasting change and potential for personal growth in our beneficiaries. We offer more than short-term financial assistance to alleviate poverty, and work towards enabling our beneficiaries to provide for themselves over the longer term.
Our approach
The following ways of working underpin our values:
- Valuing partnership: We recognise that we can achieve more when we work together and often work in partnership with other organisations.
- Act with integrity: We act with integrity and scrutinise organisations we work with to ensure they do the same.
- Respect the dignity of others: We respect and value the dignity of those we work with.
- Creativity: Our experience shows that thinking and working creatively often leads to the most productive outcomes.
- The engineering mindset: Embracing our engineering heritage, we value a disciplined and project orientated mindset and we look to apply this rigour and way of thinking to all of our work.
We focus on helping individuals and communities in selected areas of Africa, Asia and the UK where need is most evident and where we can ensure good governance of our projects through our network of project sponsors and partners.
Who we help
We support people and communities that are suffering acute poverty and hardship. The causes of these are many and varied. They include lack of legal rights (compounded by corruption), lack of education and healthcare, and lack of opportunities to maintain household food security and achieve a reasonable income.
We recognise the depth and breadth of such problems throughout the world and believe that we should focus our efforts and resources on where we can make a real difference to people’s lives.
Our projects therefore focus on:
- Support that enables and empowers people to transform their lives by removing constraints and opening up opportunities that were previously unreachable.
- Those communities where the foundation has the support of local organisations that are well placed to understand the needs of the people and deliver appropriate solutions.
How we work
We understand the power of partnership and this is key to the way we work. We look to team up with funding partners, including other charities and organisations with like-minded beliefs.
We have two types of project funding:
- Halcrow Foundation projects – where we engage directly through our project sponsors with local charities to implement projects in line with our current practices.
- Funding partner projects – where we team up with other like-minded organisations and charities to deliver projects that meet our funding criteria.
We bring together the best people and organisations to improve lives sustainably and for the better. We support organisations to work at grassroots level and we recognise the assets in a community.[/pullquote]
Delivery partners
Local delivery partners implement our projects on the ground, providing employment and opportunity for local people. These are local organisations or people who share our values and who have established track records for delivering projects within the areas we operate. Normally, the responsibility for design and delivery will lie fully with the delivery partner.
All projects have a project sponsor, who acts as the principal supervisor of an individual project. The project sponsor is someone with a close relationship with the delivery partner, and who can ensure the effectiveness of the project design to meet beneficiary needs.
Our network of experienced project sponsors are known locally for their passionate commitment to help those in need. They are respected for their transparency and accountability, and trusted by the communities in which they work.
They have a track record of developing and enabling the delivery of projects on the ground, using their local knowledge, expertise and contacts. They are trusted people from around the world who share our vision and are experienced in charitable work.
They:
- Have a recognised and respected voluntary role within the foundation
- Are responsible for identifying, developing and supervising local projects
- Are responsible for identifying delivery partners and undertaking due diligence
