Achieving lasting change through collaboration

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Established in 2001, the Steve Morgan Foundation supports disadvantaged people in Merseyside, West Cheshire and North Wales. As one of the largest private foundations in the UK, it works with hundreds of charities every year.

In this in-depth case study, Sally Morgan, a recruitment leader who has been a trustee of the foundation since 2015, talks about the value of collaboration, the impact of local roots and role of business principles in philanthropy.

Sally Morgan: Perspectives on giving

“Having been highly successful in the building industry, my husband wanted to give something back to the areas that had been important to him. Liverpool is where he was born, grew up and spent most of his working life, and it’s a part of the country that doesn’t have a great deal of wealth.

Initially, the foundation worked with a small number of local charities, giving away two, three or five million pounds a year in response to requests we received. The reason for this geographic focus was that we wanted to ensure every hard-earned pound went directly to communities that needed it most. 

Since 2017, we have substantially increased the reach of our philanthropy, with my husband donating £300 million to the foundation. It’s not a pot of money we’re looking to distribute over a short time frame as we see the foundation creating long-term benefit for others. 

Nonetheless, we recognise that we can only make lasting change through collaboration with others. At the heart of this is cultivating relationships and meaningful connections – something we work hard at across the foundation ‘family’. 

Optimising every pound

When it comes to partnerships working, we also view the foundation as disruptive, which means empowering the charities we work with to ensure every pound is fully optimised. 

An example would be our work with cancer care charity Maggie’s, in which we are funding the building of three centres in Wirral, Liverpool and North Wales. My husband founded a FTSE 250 housebuilding company and, after looking at the charity’s existing model, we realised we could build a new site for a fraction of the typical cost. 

By actively working with the charity on the design, we can ensure the centres are cost-effective and offer maximum return on investment.

Maggie's Wirral, at the Steve Morgan Foundation building, opened in July 2021 and is thriving. The centre sees over 18,000 visits every year. The foundation is now in the process of building two more centres.

This style of philanthropy also involves applying the entrepreneurial mindset to our giving that comes from leading successful commercial organisations. Rather than simply writing a cheque, we use sound business principles to conduct rigorous, appropriate due diligence and ask charities to provide us with reports.

Local roots 

One project I’m particularly excited about is our work in North Birkenhead, which is one of the UK’s most deprived areas. By collaborating with leading education charities, we have established the Cradle to Career programme, which supports families pre-birth, through to post-education and employment. 

During our initial research, we were surprised to learn that the area already had one of the largest number of charities and support agencies in the UK. However, none of these agencies were talking to one another.  

Through Cradle to Career, we’ve encouraged local schools to work together, and we consulted with the police to help us understand the real problems in this area. Since the project began, we’ve seen the reading age of children in the region increase to above the national average, having previously been substantially below the national average¹. 

For us, it was important that we didn’t just implement the programme’s delivery but rather provided the funding that would allow others to take the project forward. 

Tackling diabetes

Enabling collaboration is also key to our funding for research into type 1 diabetes. As such, we allocated £50 million² on the understanding that charities and researchers in the field would start working together. 

The grant is the largest ever award for research into type 1 diabetes in Europe and one of the UK’s most substantial donations for any form of medical research. For the first time, the world’s leading researchers into type 1 diabetes are joining up to share findings. I am extremely proud that our funding enabled a situation that may have never come about without our support.

The true value of philanthropy 

As philanthropists, it gives us great joy to see hard-earned money distributed well. For us, philanthropy is about people, and being concerned enough about the welfare of those who are marginalised and disadvantaged, to help change lives for the good.”

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