Stone Family Foundation
/OVERVIEW: In 2010, after only five years in operation, the U.K.-based Stone Family Foundation decided that it was going to commit 80 percent of its global development funding to water, sanitation, and hygiene projects.
IP TAKE: The Stone Family Foundation takes a venture capitalist approach to philanthropy. As a result, it appreciates new, higher-risk water and sanitation projects, which could provide an excellent source of funding for WASH innovators. The foundation prioritizes organizations based in the United Kingdom, where it is headquartered, but funds globally for WASH development. This is not an accessible funder. The majority of its grants are multi-year commitments for general operating support, which makes this a more crowded space.
PROFILE: John Stone sold his financial services business Lombard International Assurance to establish the Stone Family Foundation with his wife, Vanessa, in 2005. The foundation takes a venture philanthropy approach to funding, aiming to be a “pioneering, innovative and a disruptive influence.” After spending its early years backing a relatively large number of projects, the foundation’s board refocused 80% of its grantmaking to its Water to the Home in Africa and Asia, while dedicating the remaining 20 percent to adult mental health and disadvantaged youth projects in the UK. Stone seeks to raise its urban and rural WASH grants and investments in the future.
Grants for Global Development
The Stone Family Foundation currently dedicates approximately 80% of its funding to its Water to the Home program area. Stone aims to “focus on enterprises and the transformational role market-based solutions can play.” The foundation makes both “grants and impact investments to high-potential enterprises, along with non-financial support and expert advice to help our partners achieve successful, financially viable businesses.” Stone currently focuses on organizations operating in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia, particularly Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia as well as Cambodia and Bangladesh. It does provide seed capital in addition to grants to organizations that have successfully piloted new water and sanitation projects, but which need additional funding to grow.
Grants for Mental Health
The Stone Family Foundation’s Mental Health program area supports “charities working to improve the lives of people with mental health issues,” including “service delivery for adults experiencing severe and enduring mental illnesses or in crisis,” as well as nonprofits that support youth and children who are at risk of developing mental illnesses. The work Stone supports in this are includes “crisis and recovery, advice and information, and raising public awareness.” Stone makes grants to organizations that target individuals suffering from chronic conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis, depression, eating disorders, and self-harm, as well as individuals undergoing immediate mental health crises. It prioritizes groups that have “a strong focus on impact measurement, and can demonstrate positive outcomes.” Grantees include Star Wards, Rethink Mental Illness, Samaritans, Hillside Clubhouse, Mosaic Clubhouse, and Shout.
Grants for Youth Development
The Stone Family Foundation’s Disadvantaged Youth program area aims to “level the playing field a little between this group and its peers” by funding organizations working in “early years, in education and youth work, and in employability.” The foundation prioritizes organizations that “focus on improving disadvantaged youth’s educational attainment, their relationships and confidence/resilience, and/or their chances of stable work and income” and “undertake service delivery interventions at the individual and community level.” Past grantees include Impetus, Positive Futures, Youth Moves, The Tutor Trust, Empire Fighting Chance, and Tutors United.
Important Grant Details:
Grant amounts vary from about £150,000 to £1 million. While the foundation’s water and sanitation grantmaking serves organizations operating in sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia, particularly Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia as well as Cambodia and Bangladesh, its other two programs prioritize the United Kingdom.
Stone does not accept unsolicited proposals. To secure a Stone Family Foundation grant, grantseekers must go through New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), which manages the foundation’s day-to-day operations and grantmaking.
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