Annual Report 2024/2025

Foreword from Brandee Butler, Chair of Ariadne’s Advisory Board

This year has been one of extraordinary change. Around the world, hard-won rights are being rolled back. Democratic norms are eroding. And civil society, a critical force for progress, faces increasing and existential threats. Human rights are never guaranteed, and the need for courage, conviction and collective action to claim them have never been more urgent.

For Ariadne, this has also been a year of reflection and renewal. The network’s leadership transition, stewarded by our dedicated Advisory Board, required us to reflect on the kind of leadership we need, and what this moment requires of us as a network. The answers lie in the power of our community.

Throughout the year, Ariadne gathered members in curated spaces of trust, learning, inspiration, and candor. These connections were powerful reminders that attacks on our rights do not stand in isolation, neither do we face them alone. Philanthropy commands extraordinary resources. Financial, to be sure, but also in expertise, influence, and networks that join movements and cross borders. When we pool these assets, coordinate strategies, and align our commitments, our potential for impact increases exponentially.

As a philanthropic network for human rights and social change, Ariadne’s charge in this moment is clear: to gather our community with urgency, and to foster spaces where bold, coordinated action can take root.

Introduction by Renata Ćuk, Director of Programmes, and Jana Stardelova, Grants and Engagement Manager

The past year was marked by many challenges, both external and internal. Despite these, the Ariadne team worked tirelessly to keep the community feeling connected and has remained focused on the network’s shared goals. The year brought a significant internal transition, as Ariadne’s Director Julie Broome, whose vision and dedication shaped Ariadne and its community, stepped down after nine years in January 2025. During this transition, Ariadne’s Advisory Board appointed Renata Ćuk, Director of Programmes, and Jana Stardelova, Grants and Engagement Manager, as Co-Leads.

The human rights and social justice sectors continue to face significant challenges during this time. In a larger array of countries civil society operates under growing restrictions, with fewer resources and increasing exhaustion. Ariadne met this moment by providing support to the philanthropic sector by tapping into the collective expertise of our network and sustaining critical work despite tightening funding constraints.

By fostering connection and shared space, Ariadne’s initiatives supported the European philanthropic sector in navigating tipping points with courage and collective action. With our in-person events, including Ariadne’s Annual meeting and Tech and Society Funders meeting, we strengthened our network, facilitated meaningful connections and opened dialogue among funders from different European contexts. Ariadne’s 2025 Forecast and the collaboration with the European AI & Society Fund were key to our work on knowledge-sharing and provision of strategic foresight. We continued to provide critical guidance for funders at a crucial time for philanthropy. The Susan Treadwell Change Lab directly advanced diversity and inclusion in the philanthropic sector. We contributed to the empowerment of underrepresented philanthropy professionals, influenced institutional recruitment policies, and amplified historically marginalised voices within the sector.

In April 2025, Ariadne had a total of 662 individual members from 125 member-organisations, representing a diverse range of social change and human rights funders in 21 countries. We are proud that Ariadne’s existing members have recognised the value of the networking opportunities we offer and supported us with membership contributions.

Some highlights from 2023/24:

Ariadne’s ‘2025’ Annual Reconnect: In 2025, our annual conference took place in Zagreb, Croatia, in partnership with the Croatian foundation Solidarna. We gathered from April 8–10 2025, under the theme Philanthropy at the Tipping Point: Courage and Community for Rights and Justice. Through dynamic plenaries and vibrant space for heartfelt conversations, we came together to leverage the collective knowledge and experiences within our network, stay nimble, collaborative and responsive to emerging challenges, ensuring that our efforts are directed towards maximising positive impact. Feedback from the event has been very positive, participants particularly appreciated personal connections, informal conversations, and site-specific learning, including how grounded conversations were in the regional context and the local site visits. We were able to create an environment in which participants were able to get to know one another and feel more comfortable opening up about their institutions and challenges.

Grant Skills Day: Since 2012, Ariadne has been organising Grant Skills Day that originally aimed to support grant-makers improve their skills. Since then, we have adapted the themes and formats based on our members-needs.  The November 2024 convening, titled “Confronting Europe’s Shifting Landscape—Are We Ready?” offered a crucial space for funders to join forces and explore bold, practical ways to back those on the frontlines of defending rights and freedoms. The event was capped to 40 grant-makers to make sure conversations happened in a safe space and were action-orientated.

Ariadne’s Tech and Society Funders: We held our 2024 European Tech & Society Funders Meeting, in collaboration with Allen Gunn and Raegan MacDonald of Aspiration, between 8-9 October in Brussels. The event is conceived to host a small group, with 30 participants attending. It was structured around group discussions and highlighted how different issues, such as democracy, gender, migration, and climate, intersect with technology. There was real engagement between funders across issue areas and practical discussions on funders’ collaborations. To keep the momentum going, the Aspiration team has also been supporting us with holding quarterly calls with funders interested in the nexus of technology and human rights.

Together with Ariadne’s members and supporters, we organised 5 national forecast roundtables, including in: Germany with #VertrauenMachtWirkun, The Netherlands with Hivos, France with Fondation de France and Porticus, Italy with Assifero and the UK. We also hosted an online session of the 2025 Forecast for Ariadne members.

In addition to these, we organised numerous webinars and other in-person events. The topics covered include democracy, advancing gender justice in the UK, the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and social justice, and more.

Susan Treadwell Change Lab

The Susan Treadwell Change Lab is a supportive environment for philanthropy professionals from underrepresented communities which unpacks the lack of diversity in the sector whilst exploring the role of philanthropy in systems change. Through workshops, exchanges, networking, and access to resources, participants report feeling more empowered and validated in their work. The Lab has provided a space for individuals to voice their concerns, reflect on their experiences, and gain the necessary skills to navigate philanthropy spaces. By creating platforms for these professionals to engage in discussions on power dynamics and the redistribution of resources, we are actively strengthening their confidence within the philanthropy field. The Susan Treadwell Change Lab has provided wider opportunities to participants by inviting them to Ariadne events and roundtables, as active participants to share their learnings and perspectives. Several foundations in the cohort are currently revising their recruitment policies to better attract and retain candidates from underrepresented groups, reflecting the Susan Treadwell Change Lab’s broader impact in pushing for diversity at all levels of the sector. 

Tech and Society

In addition to our work on Tech and Society with Aspiration, Ariadne continued the collaboration with the European AI & Society Fund. Throughout the year we co-hosted regular briefings on a large array of topics, including human labour behind AI, building solidarity with data workers for better working conditions, AI and welfare, fighting social security injustice, redirecting AI industrial policy for public interest, strategic actions on the European AI Act enforcement, and navigating EU tech policy and politics in the context of growing authoritarian populism. This is an ongoing collaboration, as one of our efforts to bring the digital sphere closer to the wider human rights and social change funders sector.

Digital Rights and Climate Justice

The Green Screen Coalition, which comprises of Ariadne, Ford Foundation, Internet Society Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Green Web Foundation and critical infrastructure lab, aims to be a catalyst in making visible the climate implications of technology by supporting emerging on-the-ground work, building networks, and embedding these intersecting issue areas within philanthropy. In this reporting period, the Green Screen Coalition stepped up to act as a catalyser. The Green Screen Coalition launched the Green Screen Catalyst Fund, aiming to support practitioners at the intersection of climate justice and digital rights. The fund aims to bring diverse voices into local and global debates and enact change through policy, research, and community building. Over 350 applications were received, with 18 projects receiving support, 70% from communities working in the Global Majority or collaborating with majority territories. The first projects are starting to show results, for example, Friends of the Earth UK launching their report Harnessing AI for Environmental Justice on the first day of the Paris AI Action Summit.

2024/25 Income Breakdown

In the 2024/25 financial year, Ariadne’s total expenditure was £625,547 and its total income was £477,851 including project-specific grants for use in 2025/26. Ariadne draws on five income streams: Grants (core and project-specific), Membership Contributions, Conference Contributions, Donations, and Event Sponsorship. Ariadne’s largest income comes from grants – 61% and voluntary membership contributions – 28%. A smaller percentage of our income came from conference contributions (11%). Expressed as a percentage of total unrestricted income – excluding project-specific grants – the proportion of income from core grants decreased to 29% and the proportion of income coming from membership contributions increased to 52%.

In the 2023/24, 78% of Ariadne’s income came from grants and 18% from voluntary membership contributions. A smaller percentage of our income came from conference contributions (4%). Expressed as a percentage of total unrestricted income – excluding project-specific grants – the proportion of income from core grants decreased to 59% and the proportion of income coming from membership contributions increased to 33%.

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 2025/26 Ariadne Membership Contribution Form.

Ariadne’s 2025 Forecast:

The Forecast for European Social Change and Human Rights Funders is Ariadne’s annual key publication bringing insights into the trends in philanthropy. This year, in addition to the online questionnaire and in-depth interviews with members in different European countries, we held in-person roundtables in France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and the UK. For the 2025 edition, we introduced a new element—calls for action from roundtable participants—demonstrating the momentum within the sector. You can access it here.

Funding for Real Change:

Together with EDGE Funders Alliance, we continued working on the Funding for Real Change project, which aims to give funders tools for restructuring project grants in a more equitable way while encouraging them to consider moving to multi-year, flexible funding. In the past year we worked on creating a new addition to the Funding for Real Change website, a page dedicated to grantees. You can access the Grantees Hub, designed to support grantees in influencing their funding partners towards more effective giving practices. This resource continues the advocacy of the project and supports grantees in their conversations with funders about breaking the nonprofit starvation cycle and securing full-cost coverage and flexible funding. 

Human Rights & Democracy in the UK:

James Logan, Advisor, Ariadne – “A Gathering Storm, A Time for Action – Social Justice, Human Rights & Democracy in the UK”. This research was developed with the aim to help donors supporting human rights in the UK. It looked at both the immediate needs of the human rights sector as well as longer-term scenarios and what it needed to do to be ready for these.