The Alan & Babette Sainsbury Charitable Fund (ABS) is a UK-based grant-making foundation, the oldest of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts.
The Alan and Babette Sainsbury Fund was established by Lord Alan Sainsbury in 1953. The Fund continues to reflect his wishes by supporting activities which align with his original priorities, whilst responding to current issues
Instead we proactively reach out to organisations through research and networks to identify groups who align with our priorities.
The Alan and Babette Sainsbury Charitable Fund supports organisations that build bridges between communities through dialogue and education. We are also committed to promoting understanding between Israeli and Arab citizens to promote a united society both nationally and internationally, remaining true to our settlors’ wishes.
Image credit: The Linking Network
| Recipient Account | Approval Date | Awarded Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Israel Fund | 11/15/2022 | £20,000 | Towards its Gender Equality Programme. |
| The Abraham Initiative | 11/15/2022 | £15,000 | Towards its Education for a Shared Society Programme |
| Tech2Peace | 11/15/2022 | £10,000 | Towards core costs |
| Council of Christians & Jews | 11/15/2022 | £10,000 | Towards core costs |
| Harwich Kindertransport Memorial and Learning Trust Limited | 11/23/2021 | £5,000 | Towards the costs of a Kindertransport memorial in Harwich. |
| The Linking Network | 11/23/2021 | £40,000 | Towards core costs |
| National Holocaust Centre & Museum | 11/23/2021 | £5,000 | Towards its capital redevelopment |
| Solutions Not Sides | 5/18/2021 | £40,000 | Towards core costs |
| Wiener Holocaust Library | 11/10/2020 | £10,000 | Towards flexible core costs to mitigate shortfall in income due to the Covid-19 crisis. |
| Council of Christians & Jews | 5/13/2020 | £10,000 | Towards core costs |
We fund small, grassroots organisations led by refugee and asylum seekers who address access to justice by providing accurate advice in immigration, housing and benefits and also those seeking policy change.
Image credit: Work Rights Centre
| Recipient Account | Approval Date | Awarded Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| North of England Refugee Service | 11/15/2022 | £30,000 | Salary costs and its destitution fund |
| JustRight Scotland | 11/15/2022 | £7,500 | To mitigate the impact of inflation on the organisation's core costs |
| Bail for Immigration Detainees | 11/15/2022 | £30,000 | To provide expert legal advice to pro bono lawyers to secure bail for those at risk of deportation to Rwanda |
| Middlesborough Saint George Ethiopian Orthodox Church Group | 11/15/2022 | £7,000 | Towards community activities and meals for asylum seeker mothers and their children |
| Zagros Scottish Kurdish Association | 11/15/2022 | £10,000 | Towards venue and refreshment hire to run English language and healthcare awareness events for refugees and asylum seekers in Glasgow |
| Refugee and Asylum Participatory Action Research (RAPAR) | 5/24/2022 | £10,000 | Towards unrestricted core funding |
| Refugee Women Connect | 5/24/2022 | £10,000 | Towards the new post of senior staff member with lived experience of the issues facing its client |
| Work Rights Centre | 5/24/2022 | £10,000 | Towards unrestricted core funding to bolster its support for Ukrainian asylum seekers. |
| Impact Law for Social Justice | 5/24/2022 | £10,000 | Towards supporting grassroots refugee and asylum seekers groups to design and implement strategic litigation campaigns to bring about fairer decisions for refugees and asylum seekers. |
| Ethnic Minorities Law Centre | 5/24/2022 | £10,000 | Towards core costs |
| Coventry Asylum and Refugee Action Group | 11/23/2021 | £10,000 | To support migrants and asylum seekers at risk of destitution |
| Community InfoSource | 11/23/2021 | £30,000 | Towards core costs |
| The Unity Project | 11/23/2021 | £30,000 | Towards core costs |
| Women Asylum Seekers Together | 11/23/2021 | £10,000 | To support destitute asylum seekers, provision of food, parcels, and peer-to-peer support |
| All African Women's Group | 5/18/2021 | £15,000 | To run self-help groups for women asylum seekers and refugees in asylum claims, access to housing and those facing destitution |
| Student Action for Refugees | 5/18/2021 | £15,000 | Towards core costs |
| Destitute Asylum Seekers Huddersfield (DASH) | 5/18/2021 | £15,000 | To be deployed by the organisation's leadership according to their needs and priorities. |
| Nations of Migrations Awakening the Diaspora (NOMAD) | 5/18/2021 | £20,000 | Towards core costs |
| Refugees for Justice | 11/10/2020 | £5,000 | To support Refugees for Justice (hosted by Community Info Source) to gather evidence for its case for an independent enquiry into the management of accommodation for refugees and asylum seekers in Glasgow. |
| Refugee and Migrant Centre (RMC) | 11/10/2020 | £33,000 | Towards flexible funding to support the organisation to meet additional needs of migrants at risk of destitution. |
| Room to Heal | 5/13/2020 | £20,000 | Towards core costs |
| Baobab Centre for Young Survivors in Exile | 5/13/2020 | £20,000 | Towards core costs |
Our international funding prioritises organisations led from the majority world who are addressing climate change and economic injustice.
Global Greengrants Fund UK; credit: Rob Symons (Flickr)
| Recipient Account | Approval Date | Awarded Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thousand Currents | 11/15/2022 | £25,000 | Towards its Buen Vivir Impact Investment Fund which supports indigenous and marginalised groups across the majority world with small scale capital to address climate change and inequality |
| Global Greengrants Fund UK | 5/24/2022 | £50,000 | Towards supporting grassroots groups addressing climate change across Latin America |
| Ashden Climate Solutions | 11/23/2021 | £50,000 | Towards the Ashden Humanitarian Awards which amplify climate adaptation solutions in the most marginalised communities across the majority world |
| Ashden Climate Solutions | 5/18/2021 | £20,000 | Towards communications and engagement with city leaders in Colombia and across Latin America to develop their own Green Corridors†|
| Ashden Climate Solutions | 11/10/2020 | £27,500 | Towards Ashden's 2021 and 2022 Humanitarian Awards. |
| Ashden Climate Solutions | 5/13/2020 | £3,000 | Towards core costs |
The Fund has historical links with Southwark as Sainsbury’s Plc’s first headquarters were in the borough. We work collaboratively with a range of Trusts, Foundations and businesses to support Southwark based groups and organisations addressing inequalities in the borough.
Image credit: One Southwark
| Recipient Account | Approval Date | Awarded Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Future Men (Working with Men) | 11/15/2022 | £30,000 | Towards its Boys Development Programme in Southwark |
| School Home Support | 11/15/2022 | £10,000 | Towards salaries of two practitioners who provide intensive support to children on the Brandon Estate in Southwark who are persistently absent from school |
| Southwark Group of Tenants Organisation (SGTO) | 11/15/2022 | £30,000 | Core funding to support tenants to access their rights and basic needs in the face of the Cost of Living crisis |
| Community Southwark | 11/15/2022 | £5,000 | Towards the salary of its Support Officer to minoritised community groups |
| Dream Believe Achieve (DBA) | 5/24/2022 | £5,000 | Towards core costs |
| Southside Young Leaders Academy | 5/24/2022 | £10,000 | Unrestricted grant to be used flexibly at the discretion of their leadership |
| The Advocacy Academy | 11/23/2021 | £20,000 | Towards core costs |
| Bede House Association | 11/23/2021 | £10,000 | Towards core costs |
| Community Southwark | 11/23/2021 | £10,000 | Towards the salary of its Support Officer to minoritised community groups. |
| Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP) | 11/23/2021 | £15,000 | To pilot a young person led programme in Southwark. |
| United St. Saviours | 5/18/2021 | £25,000 | Towards a piloting collaborative approach to lifting young people out of poverty in the borough. |
| United St. Saviours | 11/10/2020 | £20,000 | Covid emergency funding. Funder collaboration proactively meeting the needs of the most vulnerable communities in Southwark following the most recent lockdown. |
| Young Futures | 11/10/2020 | £32,500 | Core costs to support young care leavers in bespoke accommodation and holistic support in Lambeth and Southwark |
We collaborate with experts – funders, researchers and grantees to target our support where it can be most effective
We are comfortable funding non registered charities who have lived experience of the issues they address
We publish our grants to 360Giving
A diverse and inclusive workforce will make us a more effective grant-maker. We will measure DEI progress on our own recruitment and retention and we will report on DEI in our grant-making using 360 Giving’s DEI data standard.
Trustees regularly review investments of the Fund’s endowment against environmental, social and governance criteria. ABS has no segregated investments in oil and gas and exposure to these areas in co-mingled funds will never exceed 5% of total investments, but we aim for less than 1%.
Image credit: All African Women's Group
