Once a year, we set a series of challenges relating to our thematic areas of interest that guides our funding. To ensure we are led by knowledge rather than assumptions, each challenge we set is verified by experts related to these topics.
We know that everyone must take part in creating a healthier planet, and we hope to find varied solutions from all over the world to tackle our challenges from different angles. We do not currently accept unsolicited requests for funding. Instead, we use our network to identify and invite organisations of all sizes, types and stages to apply. Whether your organisation has an established project or is brimming with fresh ideas, we can’t wait to see the sustainable solutions you may be working on to address one or more of our challenges.
Types of funding
Regenerative Investment
We offer affordable and accessible finance to impact-first organisations in various forms including debt, equity and quasi-equity, developed collaboratively with our partners. Through our investments, we strive to invest in projects that enhance the conditions for sustainable growth whilst stimulating social and environmental innovation to regenerate our natural world.
Perpetual Giving Grants
We provide grants with the potential for sustainability in mind, and our philosophy is one of ‘perpetual giving’. It is our hope that once sustainable, projects we fund will be able to re-gift a proportion of their income to the Foundation to aid the next big idea in need of a helping hand.
Of course, we understand that not all our partners will be able to re-gift our grant. But by incorporating circularity into our model of giving, we believe we are supporting others to develop a growth mindset, be generous, and think more deeply about the long-term impact of their work.
Our Criteria
Whilst we are still experimenting with different funding sums we offer, we typically award up to £25k per grant, and up to £100k per investment.
We fund projects that:
Have the potential to become sustainable over time
Are scalable and / or replicable
Tackle root causes as well as symptoms
Can demonstrate measurable impact
Collaborate and partner with others
Understand the interrelated nature of human and nature wellbeing
Incorporate local communities into project design and implementation
WHO WE FUND
We are open-minded and flexible, and support organisations of different sizes, structures and types, from registered charities to social enterprises, CICs, and for-profit companies.
The key element we look for is that organisations have a passionate team of environmental champions, who put earth care and people care at the heart of their mission.
The Dixon Foundation is committed to transparency and we work with 360Giving to publish information about our grants. Using the 360Giving Data Standard, our awarded grants since 2021 are available here. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. This means the data is freely accessible to anyone to be used and shared as they wish. The data must be attributed to The Dixon Foundation.
We believe that with better information, funders can be more effective and strategic decision makers. 360Giving supports funders to publish open data about their grants, and empowers people to use this data to improve charitable giving through a range of free online tools. For more information, visit https://www.threesixtygiving.org
