Letter from the Trustees

This was a special year for us, as it marked 40 years since our grant-making began. More than 700 of our partners joined us on a global call in November to celebrate with us. It was great to see so many of our partners online and to sense their enthusiasm for the work they do.

It was also another busy year for Oak Foundation and our partners. In 2023, we provided 438 programme grants to 409 organisations in 40 countries for a total USD 474 million.

In response to feedback from our recent Grantee Perception Survey, we committed to: (1) continue to provide longer and larger grants, with an emphasis on core support, when possible; (2) right-size our grantmaking process to reduce the burden on our partners, so that we can focus on impact; (3) communicate better to ensure our partners understand our grant-making strategies and where they fit into broader efforts; (4) ensure that we are responsive to our partners’ needs and the context in which they operate; and (5) continue to provide responsive capacity-building support. One improvement we made this year included the launch of an improved grant-making system, which went live on 29 November. We hope that the new system will make the grant-making process easier for our partners.

We delight in sharing our annual report every year as it showcases the significant accomplishments of our partners around the world. Their work inspires us daily, and we hope you experience the hope and joy we do while reading about their efforts. Some of the highlights include:

Our Environment Programme’s partners in Southern Africa are helping to preserve biodiversity while also supporting the people and communities who depend on the natural resources of the African landscape to survive. This is an exciting new line of work being advanced through the Institute for Poverty, Land, and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

Across the UK and the US, our Housing and Homelessness Programme’s partners support policies to ensure that good-quality housing is available to people on low incomes, and to promote secure, safe, and stable housing rentals for people in neighborhoods of their choice.

Our International Human Rights Programme’s partners are working to ensure that people have access to high-quality, reliable information on social media platforms around the world, holding technology companies to account as appropriate.

Our Issues Affecting Women Programme’s partners in Moldova are deeply committed to reducing gender-based violence and building public awareness of intimate partner violence.

Our Learning Differences Programme’s partners are leading the movement to promote inclusive education all around the world, so that every student benefits from engaging educational opportunities, regardless of learning differences, race, income, or other issues that might undermine their access to high-quality education.

The partners of Oak’s Prevent Child Sexual Abuse Programme are making progress in ensuring that survivors of child sexual abuse can seek justice without an expiration date. Oak’s partners are focused on ending Statutes of Limitation, which are time-limits that can prove catastrophic when applied to child sexual abuse cases.

Our Special Interest Programme invests in addressing a panoply of issues that touch people’s lives around the world. This includes the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, which seeks to protect, conserve, and restore wildlife and habitat. Also in North Carolina, Code the Dream offers free, intensive training in software development to young people from diverse, low-income backgrounds. In the UK, the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens has established the world’s biggest wild plant seed conservation programme to protect our rarest and most threatened plants. In Europe, Cancer Support Switzerland provides emotional support to people with a cancer diagnosis at every stage of their illness, as well as to their loved ones and caregivers.

Brazil Programme partners envision more humane and effective approaches to dealing with narcotic abuse in the country. This includes efforts to bring together communities, therapeutic institutions, rights defenders, politicians, and the police, to work together to produce local, national, and regional policies based on humanity, rights, and dignity.

Oak Foundation Denmark turned 20 in 2023. We threw a party at our office in Copenhagen to celebrate; it was great to see so many of our partners. Alongside this, we have highlighted the efforts of our partners to support children seeking asylum in Denmark.

Our India Programme supports efforts to help tea workers in the West Bengal region to access benefits such as healthcare, housing maintenance, and pensions.

Our Zimbabwe Programme section showcases Foundations for Farming, which teaches families how to use simple, climate-smart methods that regenerate soil and feed their families. We also support KidzCan, which helps improve children’s cancer survival rates in a loving and caring environment.

We hope you appreciate this glimpse into the efforts of our partners. We look forward to continuing our collaboration to forge a more positive future.

Trustees of Oak Foundation
Jette Parker, Alan Parker, Caroline Turner, Natalie Shipton, Kristian Parker, Christopher Parker, Sebastian Turner, Benedikte Turner