Triodos Foundation

Triodos Foundation works within a legal framework governing charitable donations that clearly separates its work from the work of Triodos Bank. However, beneficiaries of Triodos Foundation must complement the work of Triodos Bank, reflecting the core values and priorities at the heart of the Triodos Group’s mission.

Triodos Foundation receives many more applications than it can respond to positively. Almost all successful applications are identified pro-actively by the Foundation itself, rather than responses to speculative applications. The Foundation Board can only consider approaches from charities whose goals closely match those of Triodos Bank. As such only social, environmental and cultural projects that benefit the community as a whole are considered. Successful international projects are predominantly identified and approached by Triodos’ International Department in The Netherlands.

Donations have included a grant to leading micro-finance institution K-Rep bank in Kenya. K-Rep has matched the Foundation’s donation to support an agricultural pilot project providing subsistence farmers in Kenya with access to loan finance. OPCION, a Guatemalan Non-Governmental Organisation supporting indigenous small-scale farmers has also benefited from a Foundation grant, with the assistance of Oxfam in the UK. More recently, the Foundation contributed to the production of an action pack supporting the Trade Justice Movement's campaigning work, and OneWorld UK, the UK web edition of a global civil society internet portal for human rights and sustainable development.

Domestically, the Foundation has supported the first organic research conference in the UK, in Aberystwyth. A grant to Emerson College in Sussex has also helped develop a four-year biodynamic organic agriculture training course. The course, which is part of an initiative to develop European-wide sustainable agriculture education, helps equip students with the skills to manage biodynamic or organic farms.

Applications should be made in writing, outlining the purpose of the project and providing any relevant supporting information. The Triodos Foundation Board meets on an ad hoc basis throughout the year to assess the applications and make decisions about specific grants. Unfortunately we are not able to reply to applications that are unsuccessful.

Applications should be sent to Triodos Foundation, Brunel House, 11 The Promenade, Bristol, BS8 3NN.