For us, ‘commitment’ comes first. You’ve got to decide you want to get more involved - that you’re going to make a commitment of time as well as money; a commitment to going on a journey with a project or charity. Once you do that, the learning comes. My learning, and our team’s learning, is refined on a daily and weekly basis in terms of how we operate, who we work with and what we do - it’s a continual, evolving process.Sir Trevor Pears CMG
Our philosophy is...
We believe that thoughtful and effective philanthropy is about creating spaces
Beneficiary Space
The Pears Pavilion at Coram provides a state-of-the-art space for the charity’s adoption support and creative therapies services.
Financial Space
We have been a core funder of Carer’s Trust for over 15 years, providing essential revenue funding and supporting it through a merger process.
Space to Reflect
We provide meeting space and a professional development programme for our partners.
Safe Space
The Linking Network helps schools and teachers to engage with and explore issues of identity and diversity.
Space for Ideas
The Pears #iwill Fund has supported 30 NHS trusts to pilot ways to develop sustainable social action opportunities for young people
Space to Connect
SID-Israel has brought together 140 organisations working in the field of international development.
Space to Explore
The UCL Centre for Holocaust Education has conducted ground-breaking research studies that underpin its teacher training programmes.
Space to Study
The Pears Scholarship initiative is providing skills and training to equip the next generation of public health leaders in Africa.
We build close relationships with our partners and provide more than financial support.
Our grant managers work closely with our grantees to understand the contexts in which they work and their needs and challenges. We believe strongly in long-term, core funding which enables us to build relationships that develop over time and respond to changes in circumstances.
We are committed to learning from our individual grants and grant programmes and to supporting our partners to reflect on their work and learn and improve. Therefore in addition to financial support and the grant manager relationship, we offer a full professional development programme for all our Pears partners, working closely with our partners to identify the issues they would like to explore. The programme is a mixture of technical skills training and more reflective workshops focusing on teamwork, leadership and problem-solving.
You can read more about our approach to relationships and learning here.