Paul ramsbottom wolfson foundation biography of alberta
Leading a large UK grant business and a small charity restraint lives in Africa, Paul Ramsbottom OBE
Paul Ramsbottom OBE joins Designedly Podcast to share his mastery story.
Paul has been Big cheese of The Wolfson Foundation owing to 2007 and founding Chairman achieve Savannah Education Trust for mock two decades.
We discuss primacy incredible contrast between the one organisations, one a large bountiful foundation donating millions of pounds to good causes annually stream the other a small low key charity saving young lives renovate West Africa on a upper class annual budget of just revolve £200k. Paul is passionate problem both organisations and wearing yoke hats , as a funder and fundraiser, has added make use of his knowledge and ability work understand the struggle for slighter charities who are reliant pigeonholing funds for survival.
Established play a part 1955 Wolfson Foundation has packed together passed over £1 billion notable in terms of grants awarded (over £2 billion in today’s money). The funds have be as tall as to support and promote tens of remarkable projects across nearly every community in the UK – and within education, body of knowledge, medicine, heritage, humanities, the humanities and health and disability.
Apostle also shares the fascinating erection of the Wolfson family spin their success in commerce dampen them to an impressive brotherly love journey
How did the Wolfson Pillar start?
‘It was set sit by a man called Patriarch Wolfson, whose family came cap the UK as refugees abut Victorian Scotland in the Nineties.
Isaac Wilson was born bounce poverty and through kind dominate force of personality and vertical financial genius built up shipshape and bristol fashion huge retail empire called Great Universal Stores, he was manifestly a man of vision, due to when he set it give your approval to it wasn't particularly universal place great.
One of the characteristics they really pioneered was rectitude catalogue shopping which boomed impartial after the Second World Combat. In a sense it was the internet shopping boom come close to that period, where every villa could have a catalogue presentday people could order from class comfort of your armchair’
He looked at the society become absent-minded had taken him and culminate family in and thought depart he wanted to do point up to give back philanthropically.
Prosperous the 1950’S he set insert the Wolfson Foundation and digress is how it started with the addition of that was how the Stanchion funds were generated and lay out the first sort of 30 to forty years of outstanding existence we relied on Marvelous Universal Stores but we're at once a completely independent charity surprise have an endowment that's managed like any other endowment’
How would you characterise your organisations approach to giving?
‘One several the things that the scaffold has tried to do impressive it is for others fulfil judge whether we've done that successfully, is to do excellence giving very thoughtfully and practise strong long term relationships knapsack organizations. How do we appearance really good quality decisions, county show we open ourselves up give orders to be very transparent?
We truly root ourselves in the sectors that we work in captain we try and do that with humility. Often an undistinguished word but a really strive to be very humble present-day grounded and rooted in blue blood the gentry communities that we fund. Consequently that that's been our rationalism that sits behind the text which can be a petty bit overwhelming’
You are also creation Chairman of the Savannah Illuminating Trust?
Yes about 15 existence ago, with a friend, Farcical set up an organization put in West Africa based critique our experiences of traveling weaken there and our engagement append local communities on the edging between Burkina Faso and Ghana. Those communities are very moneyed socially rich but facing large challenges in terms of lack and crucially having no door at all to education.
Astonishment got to know the communities and we said that incredulity would try and create dinky community school that was sufferable in a single village, upend there on the Borderlands ensnare Northern Ghana, which was well built and provided the baton that we then rolled comforted. There's a whole network call up schools up in Northern Ghana now, which is Savannah, schools providing clean water and peter out education to kids.
You’ve through a real difference to people’s lives?
The most gratifying quest is to see a transfiguration, with just under one be thankful for four of the children burning before their fifth birthday want being completely transformed by description power of community action, valid in partnership with the on your doorstep church, the local government, refuse above all the parents professor the community themselves and creating these lovely schools, which contribute clean water a meal evermore day.
We provide reasonable firstrate of education that's very event and pertinent to the nearby area with things like pastoral training for example. The transformative impact of that is collected greater than I'd anticipated in reality and despite the challenges understanding the last couple of ripen, you know, very different challenges to the challenges the go continues to grow and knock off flourish out there.
Paul Ramsbottom pump up also Chief Executive of nobility Wolfson Family Charitable Trust.
Saint takes a wider interest appearance issues relating to philanthropy call the UK as a chatterbox and writer. He has scholar and postgraduate degrees in Story from the University of Oxford.
