Annual Report 2021/22
After a couple of tough years during which many in our community worked entirely remotely and often in isolation thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, the world has started opening up again, and Ariadne ended its 2021/22 year with its first physical convening in two and a half years. It was truly a joy to be able to meet old friends and new ones at Ariadne’s Great Reconnect. Held at the end of April 2022 in Lille, France, this was an opportunity for Ariadne members to come together after a long absence, share experiences, and collectively think about the future. We are still feeling the warmth and excitement of reconnecting at the event and look forward to more opportunities to be together in the coming year.
Racial justice has been on the forefront of many funders’ minds in recent years and emerged as a strong focus of Ariadne’s work in 2021/22. We held our Grant Skills Week on funding with a racial justice lens in June 2021, in partnership with the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, and we continued offering spaces for reflection on philanthropy’s role in upholding or dismantling racism through our work with Healing Solidarity Collective. As a staff team, we also went on our own journey, going through a training and reflection process with some of our fellow networks. As more funders start to grapple with questions of racial (in)equity and what it means for their own work, we hope that these programmes will help inspire and guide you to new opportunities and ways of working.
As ever, thank you for your ongoing support and engagement in the Ariadne community. I look forward to continuing to work together and hope to see even more of you in person over the next year.
‘Providing a non-judgmental space for members to share and learn from each other.’
In April 2022, Ariadne had a total of 757 individual members from 139 member-organisations, based in 22 countries. The number of member organisations has remained the same since April 2021, while the number of individual members has been continuously growing. This reflects our commitment to engaging with our member organisations and has led to another record year for membership contribution levels.
‘It was a really welcoming, open, productive, creative, and collaborative space and I was incredibly pleased to be able to join in person.’
“I really appreciated the rhythm of the conference, the time for informal discussion , the fact that every one could participate in the discussions with lots of kindness.” – Ariadne’s Great Reconnect 2022
Some highlights from 2021/22:
On 23-24 June, Ariadne held its 2021 Grant Skills Week: Funding with a Racial Justice Lens (with the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE)). During the online gathering, we explored how funders can build a racial justice perspective into their work. We examined what ‘structural or systemic racism’ means and how that concept might be relevant to funders’ work, regardless of the primary focus of their funding, and we explored the particular challenges facing anti-racism work in Europe. During the event, participants had the opportunity to hear from leading racial justice campaigners from across Europe and the UK and connect with peers who have been grappling with similar questions.
Part conference; part open space; part kitchen, salon, and reunion: Ariadne’s Great Reconnect 2022 took place at Canopy in Lille, France from 26–28 April 2022. After two years of working in isolation, our community of social change and human rights funders reconnected in person for long-awaited conversations. Since our last meeting in Belfast in 2019, we have dealt with the challenge of a global pandemic, heard powerful calls for racial justice, and been faced with growing evidence of the urgency of addressing climate change. How have we faced these changes and challenges, as funders and individuals? What lessons will make us better funders for this decade? What urgent conversations do our field and partners expect us to have? All these questions and more were discussed over these three days that reconnected us as colleagues, friends, and thought partners.
5th May – Workshop Series – Taking a DEI Approach to Addressing Discrimination and Harassment (with Funder Safeguarding Collaborative)
9th June – Webinar – Funders’ briefing – The EU anti-racism Action Plan (ARAP)
14th June – Webinar – European State of Hate Report presentation for European funders
23rd – 24th June – Webinar – Grant Skills Week: Funding with a Racial Justice Lens (with Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE))
21st July – Webinar – Book Launch: Modern Grantmaking – Practical advice and reformist inspiration with Gemma Bull and Tom Steinberg
25th October – Webinar – Climate Change and Finance: What Human Rights and Social Change Funders Need to Know
30th October – Webinar – Harnessing citizens’ participation for a just transition (with Transparency & Accountability Initiative)
20th January – Webinar – Funding to meet changing realities: LGBTI organisations on the state of funding in Europe & Central Asia (with ILGA-Europe and Global Philanthropy Project)
25th January – Webinar – Funder Briefing on Human Rights Act (with Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF))
26th January – Webinar – Italy Forecast roundtable (in Italian)
8th February – Table ronde – Le rôle de la philanthropie pour une transition juste (avec Coalition française des fondations pour le Climat, qui fait partie du Centre Français des Fonds et Fondations, CFF)
8th February – Webinar – France Forecast Roundtable (in French)
9th February – Webinar – United Kingdom Forecast Roundtable
10th February – Webinar – the Netherlands Forecast roundtable
15th February – Webinar – Statelessness: what is it, why is it a problem and how can we best work to tackle it? (with Social Change Initiative (SCI) and the Institute for Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI))
16th February – Webinar – Germany Forecast Roundtable (in German)
17th February – Webinar – First webinar on Understanding and uprooting racism in grantmaking institutions (with Healing Solidarity)
24th March – Webinar – Final webinar on Understanding and uprooting racism in grantmaking institutions (with Healing Solidarity)
29th March – Webinar – What can philanthropy do for Ukraine today? (with Prague Civil Society Centre)
5th April – Webinar – Advanced Look, Funding Justice, Volume 1. social justice grant-making in the UK (with Civic Power Fund and Jon Cracknell from The Hour Is Late)
26th to 28th April – Lille, France – Ariadne’s Great Reconnect 2022
29th April – Lille, France – Funders Convening on Climate Justice and Digital Rights (with Mozilla and Ford Foundation)
‘In addition to grantmaking, we are also supporting members to think about how they can address questions of inequity within foundations and philanthropy as a whole.’
Racial Justice, Equity & Digital Rights
Racial Justice training for progressive networks: In the summer of 2021, Ariadne joined with partner networks including EDGE, HRFN, PAWHR, Prospera, Elevate Children, and Transparency & Accountability Network to engage consultants to work with us as network staff to better understand how structural racism affects our work in a regional and global context and support us to develop programming for our members in turn. We started a training series with AORTA Consulting in November 2021, which was helpful not only for staff members as individuals but also a good chance to exchange and explore these issues with our peers.
Racial Equity Programming: Ariadne partnered with Healing Solidarity Collective on a series of conversations aimed at helping grantmakers explore racial dynamics within their own institutions and to consider how structural racism impacts philanthropy and the way that it operates. Healing Solidarity facilitated meetings of three racialised cohorts, which have been documented in this series of blogs in Alliance Magazine, written by participants from Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
Digital Power: The two-year programme on Digital Power includes opportunities for hands-on learning about technology and its implications for human rights; support for technology and data strategy development; and facilitated discussions about key, intersectional technology issues that will require substantial collaboration to positively influence. Digital Power Lead, Maya Richman, convened small cohorts of funders grappling with the challenges of integrating technology into their work for joint support through this process.
In June 2021, Ariadne helped organise an online convening of European digital rights funders. This group had last met in 2019, and the half-day event was an opportunity for digital rights funders to reconnect around common challenges and to meet some funders new to the field.
‘Relaunching our mentoring programme with a greater focus on strengthening racial and gender justice in philanthropy.’
Mentoring scheme
Ariadne launched the third year of its mentoring scheme. 19 mentor/mentee pairs participated in the scheme, supported by tailor-made guides, portal communities, and facilitated online training sessions for mentors. Our mentees included new grant-makers, junior staff members, and those seeking support with their ongoing work or with a professional transition.
We also started working to relaunch our mentoring programme in 2022 to give it a greater focus on strengthening racial and gender justice in philanthropy, in memory of our friend and colleague Susan Treadwell. By increasing the capacity of this programme and more explicitly developing a track for minority foundation staff, we hope we can help improve diversity in the sector.
Ukraine
Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine Ariadne and its members, have been working on diverse supportive initiatives. Initially, we put together this crowd-sourced resources doc where funders could share information about funds being created. It has been widely circulated and grew quickly over the first two weeks. As a longer-term measure, we have partnered with Philea and other European networks to create two parallel sites, Philanthropy for Ukraine and NGOs for Ukraine, where funders and NGOs can post funding needs and opportunities. Our intention remains for civil society to be able to use the philanthropy site to identify possible sources of support and for funders to be able to search the NGO site for organisations doing work they would like to support.
‘A healthy diversity of income sources that will lend the network greater financial sustainability.’
In the 2021/22 financial year, Ariadne’s total expenditure was £482,197 and its total income was £756,990, including project-specific grants for use in 2022/23. Ariadne draws on five income streams: Grants (core and project-specific), Membership Contributions, Conference Contributions, and Event Sponsorship. 79% of Ariadne’s income came from grants and 16% from voluntary membership contributions. Expressed as a percentage of total unrestricted income – excluding project-specific grants – the proportion of income from grants decreases to 55% and the proportion of income coming from membership contributions increases to 32%.
In 20/21, 62% of Ariadne’s income came from grants and 36% from voluntary membership contributions. A smaller percentage of our income came from conference contribution (1%) and generated income (1%). However, should we express this as a percentage of total unrestricted income – excluding project-specific grants – the proportion of income from grants decreases to 49%, and the proportion of income coming from membership contributions increases to 46%.
To ensure Ariadne’s financial sustainability in the long term, Ariadne’s Advisory Board encourages all member organisations to make a financial contribution to the cost of the network on an annual basis. Please click here for the 2022/23 Ariadne Membership Contribution Form.
Resources
In 2021/2022, Ariadne published its eighth annual Forecast report. To create the 2022 Ariadne Forecast, Ariadne members and friends of the network filled in surveys, participated in interviews and attended online forecast meetings to share their insights into trends in European social change and human rights philanthropy for 2022.
The report looks at the challenges and opportunities this year might bring for grantees; how funder practice could change; which political events are likely to affect their work; what will become more important in the months ahead; and – perhaps most importantly – what to feel hopeful about. There are chapters on France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and the UK, plus a broader, global focus.
Many trusts and foundations are grappling with the same challenges: they want to support impactful, inclusive technology and innovation in not-for-profit organisations and address the societal changes brought about by emerging technology.
This guide released by Ariadne in 2022 is for people working in trusts and foundations who want to effectively fund technology. It offers guidance and processes to help in understanding the technical maturity of not-for-profit organisations, or assessing the feasibility of technology-heavy grants. It also gives notes on how to have productive conversations with grantees and partners about technology.
Human Rights Grantmaking Principles
In September 2020, Ariadne, Human Rights Funders Network, and Gender Funders CoLab launched the Human Rights Grantmaking Principles, which reflect the contributions of approximately 300 human rights contributors, including funders and activists from over 40 countries. Following a series of workshops in 2020-21, the networks launched a microsite to house information about the Principles, including tools to help funders implement them, and are continuing to develop case studies and other resources for funders.
Ariadne Staff Team
Renata Cuk
Director of Programmes
Renata Cuk is a dedicated advocate for social justice, employing a systemic approach and storytelling to drive change. With over 15 years of experience in the human rights field, she is deeply committed to addressing inequalities, focusing specifically on intersectional gender and racial justice. Renata spent 11 years at the Open Society Foundations, where she worked on various issues and played a key role in developing the economic justice portfolio for Europe. She actively participated in donor collaboratives, including the ESGE Funders Alliance, where she was a member of the European Steering group. Renata is also a member of the global community of Atlantic Fellows, leading the group on Storytelling and Narratives. Additionally, she serves on the Advisory Board for the Democracy and Belonging Forum, with a strong emphasis on fostering a Community of Practice centred around racialized othering and belonging in Europe.
Jana Stardelova
Grants and Engagement Manager
Jana Stardelova joined Ariadne in April 2022 as the Grants and Engagement Manager. She is a migration and gender expert with more than 10 years of experience in the international humanitarian, as well as NGO sectors. She has worked in diverse humanitarian settings, in this context, she has supported program development, developed emergency field response, and conducted research on migration management, human trafficking, gender equality, and human rights issues. She is one of the co-founders of the NGO Tiiiit! Inc., which is based in Skopje, North Macedonia that works on improving women’s rights through art and culture.
Molly Mathews
Administration and Events Officer
Molly is Ariadne’s Administration and Events Officer. After completing her Bachelors degree in International Relations at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, she joined IFOAM Organics Europe as an Events and Membership Assistant. She has experience organizing in-person, virtual and hybrid events, as well as developing membership engagement strategies.
Her main interests lie within the fields of migrant rights, climate justice and youth engagement.
Tatevik Sargsyan
Lead, Susan Treadwell Change Lab
Tatevik (she/her) works across design, strategy, philanthropy and publishing. She brings over 10 years of experience developing partnerships across sectors, designing strategic programmes and facilitating workshops – establishing some of the UK’s first of its kind innovation programmes in education, housing and arts for social change. She has worked within and alongside a range of Trusts and Foundations, focusing on racial justice and anti-oppression; co-designed models of grant funding; and embedding learning journeys. She also works with public and private sectors establishing place-based initiatives and place visioning/strategies. Tatevik publishes poetry and essays, and is a Trustee of the Poetry Translation Centre in London.
Maya Richman
Green Screen Coalition Co-Lead
Maya is co-lead of the Green Screen Coalition which is a collaborative that works alongside funders and practitioners to build networks across climate justice and tech justice spaces. Maya is a jack-of-all-trades who has spent the last ten years listening and learning about the plurality of struggles for technological justice across the world, and supporting activists and organizations to untangle technologies’ hold on our lives and reclaim its power to bring about social and political transformation. She has previously worked with The Engine Room and as a Mozilla Fellow (2018 – 2019) with Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice.
Ariadne Advisory Board
Claudia Bollwinkel
Senior Program Advisor, Dreilinden
Claudia Bollwinkel believes that how we do something is just as important as what we do. She gained these and other insights in her encounters with queer feminists from different parts of the world. Claudia joined Dreilinden in 2019 as Senior Program Advisor after working on the book “Transformative Philanthropy – Giving with Trust” together with Ise Bosch and Justus Eisfeld. Claudia was previously a member of the board of Prospera – The International Network of Women’s Funds. As program manager of filia the German women’s fund, she helped shape the first girls’ advisory board in Germany, a model project for participatory grantmaking that gives young women a voice in decision making.
Brandee Butler
Deputy CEO, Fund for Global Human Rights
Brandee M. Butler is Deputy CEO at the Fund for Global Human Rights where she oversees the Fund’s operations in pursuit of its mission to provide resources and support to frontline human rights activists and movements. Previously, she served as a division director at the Open Society Initiative for Europe leading the Civil Liberties Division.
Brandee has over 15 years of experience working with international foundations, civil society organizations, and the private sector to promote human rights. She has served in leadership and grantmaking positions, supporting human rights funding at the C&A (now Laudes) Foundation in Amsterdam and Levi Strauss & Co. in Brussels. Earlier in her career, Brandee received the Yale Law School Bernstein Fellowship for International Human Rights to combat child trafficking in Gabon. She later practiced law at the Alliance for Children’s Rights in Los Angeles and specialized in international justice as a program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Brandee has published articles on structural racism, modern slavery, gender-based violence, and supply chain transparency. She currently serves on the boards of Women Win and Ariadne Funders Network. She received a BA with honors from Harvard University and a JD from Yale Law School and is currently based in Barcelona.
Jon Cracknell
Trustee, The Ecology Trust
Jon oversaw the philanthropic activity of the family of the late Sir James Goldsmith for many years, much of which is directed towards environmental advocacy and campaigning. He was closely involved in the development of the UK Environmental Funders Network and has co-authored multiple reports analysing tens of thousands of philanthropic grants from environmental funders, both in the UK and across Europe. He is a steering group member of the European Environmental Funders Group and served two terms on the management board of the US Environmental Grantmakers Association. He now works with a range of foundations through The Hour Is Late.
Sümeyye Ekmekci
Programme Manager at Adessium Foundation
Sümeyye is the Programme Manager of Social Initiatives at Adessium Foundation. Adessium Foundation supports initiatives and organizations that target subjects of social importance. Through its Social Initiatives, Adessium strives to create a society where people live together with respect and compassion for one another and in which everyone can participate equally. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern Studies (hons) from Leiden University and a BSc in Anthropology from Utrecht University.
Walter Viers
Regional Director, Central and Eastern Europe, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
Walter is Regional Director for Central and Eastern Europe at the C.S. Mott Foundation. Based in the Foundation’s London office, Walter oversees grantmaking in Central and Eastern Europe and has specific responsibility for programming in the Western Balkans. Prior to joining Mott in 1998, Walter had a career as a lawyer, working in private practice in Washington, D.C., and Prague, and as a legal services attorney in Memphis, Tennessee. His interest in civil society development grew from observing the sweeping changes taking place in CEE in the 1990s and the important role the civil society sector played in transforming the region. Walter was born in Maryland and grew up in Connecticut. Before entering college, he spent a year studying abroad as an American Field Service student in Turkey. He is a graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and the University Of Virginia School Of Law.
Ariadne would like to thank Nienke Venema for her service and dedication on Ariadne’s Advisory Board, a role that she performed with great dedication.
Supporters
Ariadne would not exist without the generous support of the following foundations:
Ariadne is also supported by membership contributions. We wish to thank the following members for their support in 2021/22:
A B Charitable Trust
Abilis Foundation
Adessium Foundation
Angela Seay
Assifero
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice
Bailey Grey
Baring Foundation
Barrow Cadbury Trust
Both ENDS
Bromley Trust
Calala Women’s Fund
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Christine Oliver
Civitates
Claire Payne
Comic Relief
Community Foundation for Northern Ireland
Democracy & Media Foundation
Disability Rights Fund
Dreilinden
EMpower – The Emerging Markets Foundation
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Euro-Mediterranean Foundation of Support to Human Rights Defenders
European Programme for Integration and Migration
filia.die frauenstiftung
Fondation AGIR SA VIE
Fondation Pour Un Autre Monde
Fondation CHANEL
Fondation de France
Fondation de France (Un Monde Par Tous)
Fondazione CON IL SUD
Freudenberg Stiftung
Fund for Global Human Rights
Gemeinwohlstiftung COMÚN
Global Dialogue
Global Fund for Women
Global Greengrants Fund
Global Philanthropy Project
Hannan Serphos
Hanneke Hazeveld – Consultant
Heinrich Boell Foundation
Janivo Foundation
Jo Baker – Consultant
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust
Kering Foundation
KIOS Foundation
Laudes Foundation
Legal Education Foundation
MADRE
Media Legal Defence Initiative
Mediterranean Women’s Fund
Network for Social Change
Open Society Fund Prague
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
Porticus
Prespa Ohrid Nature Trust
Renewable Freedom Foundation
Roberta Giassetti – Consultant
Rosa
Sage Fund
Solberga Foundation
The Bonnart Trust
The Christensen Fund
The David and Elaine Potter Foundation
The Womanity Foundation
Thousand Currents
Tinsley Charitable Trust
Unbound Philanthropy
Urgent Action Fund
Weisblatt & associés
Wim Monasso – Consultant
Women’s Fund in Georgia