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Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
Beatrice Hollond chairs the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, a £1bn+ UK grant-maker born from an M&G Investments fortune.
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation
The Foundation was established in 1961 by Ian Fairbairn with the wealth he generated by creating M&G Investments, a pioneer of unit trusts in Britain. Named for his wife, the London-based charitable endowment is governed by a board of trustees that includes the founder's great-granddaughter, Harriet Manners, and former Jupiter Fund Management vice chairman Edward Bonham Carter, and is chaired by Beatrice Hollond. Esmée Fairbairn manages a passive endowment portfolio that spans hedge funds, private equity, infrastructure, and timber, while running an actively deployed social investment book that targets early-stage and growth-equity ventures, buyouts, and fund commitments within the UK. The foundation signed the UN Principles for Responsible Investment in 2021 and is an investor member of the Association of Real Estate Funds. In 2026, it participated in the first close of the UK's inaugural blended nature-as-infrastructure fund, the Big Nature Impact Fund, which reached £64.6m. The foundation reports having spent £52.9m on grants and approved £14.3m in social investments in 2025, with 67% of its grants allocated to core or unrestricted costs. Its grant-making targets three outcome areas: restoring and protecting the natural world, advancing a fairer and anti-racist future, and building creative, confident communities. The foundation operates from a single London headquarters. The foundation's architecture is distinct in its separation of a returns-seeking endowment portfolio from a mission-aligned social investment book, employing a grant-making model that prioritizes unrestricted funding. It advances its influence through membership in the Charities Responsible Investment Network and the Funder Commitment on Climate Change, while pursuing a multi-year experiment in youth co-governance through its Involving Young People Collective. Its origin in a unit-trust fortune creates a legacy of pooled, democratized finance that still informs its collaborative funding approach.
General information
Firm type
Foundation
Year founded
1961
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
London
Corporate office
6th Floor, 210 Pentonville Road, London N1 9JY, UK
Principals
Beatrice Hollond
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Harriet Manners
Trustee
Edward Bonham Carter
Trustee
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who runs investment decisions at Esmée Fairbairn Foundation?
The board of trustees holds ultimate fiduciary responsibility for the endowment portfolio and delegates day-to-day oversight to investment staff and external managers. The board also directs the £14.3m social investment programme, making direct commitments alongside grants. Chair Beatrice Hollond and trustee Edward Bonham Carter, the former vice chairman of Jupiter Fund Management, provide significant investment-governance experience.
Is Esmée Fairbairn a grant-maker, an investor, or both?
It operates as both. The foundation maintains a passive investment portfolio across asset classes including hedge funds, private equity, infrastructure, and timber to fund its operations. It also runs an active social investment book that made £14.3m in new commitments in 2025, including direct venture investments, fund commitments, and nature-based blended-finance vehicles.
How is Esmée Fairbairn Foundation related to M&G Investments?
The foundation's endowment originates from Ian Fairbairn, who founded M&G Investments and pioneered unit trusts in the UK. The foundation was established in 1961 with wealth generated by the firm, but it operates entirely independently from M&G Investments today. A descendant of the founder, Harriet Manners, serves as a trustee.
Does Esmée Fairbairn manage its own capital or use external managers?
The foundation uses external managers for most of its diversified endowment portfolio, which includes allocations to hedge funds and private investment vehicles. For its social investment book, the team manages direct investments and fund commitments in-house, backing entities like the Big Nature Impact Fund, a blended nature-as-infrastructure vehicle that closed its first round at £64.6m in May 2026.
What is Esmée Fairbairn's known posture on co-investments?
The foundation participates as a limited partner in blended-finance and impact funds and makes social investments directly into UK-based organizations. It has not publicly disclosed a formal co-investment program alongside GPs. Its recent engagement with the Big Nature Impact Fund demonstrates a willingness to anchor new, mission-aligned investment structures alongside other institutional partners.
Which sectors does Esmée Fairbairn explicitly avoid?
The foundation's investment policy requires alignment with its charitable mission, and it has been a UN PRI signatory since 2021. While it does not publish a formal exclusion list, its grant-making and social investment portfolios are exclusively directed at UK-focused organizations in environmental restoration, social justice, community development, and arts and culture. It does not fund work outside the UK.
What share of Esmée Fairbairn's grants is unrestricted?
In 2025, 67% of the foundation's grant-making was awarded for core or unrestricted costs. This aligns with its commitment to the Open and Trusting Grant-making campaign, launched by the Institute for Voluntary Action Research, which encourages funders to provide flexible capital to grantees.
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