About us

Our story

The Bevan Foundation was founded in 2001 to strengthen public policy after devolution. 

We took our name from Aneurin Bevan, founder of the NHS, because of a shared commitment to social justice, although the Foundation is firmly non-partisan.

Since then we have made a significant contribution to public policy:

• Our call for economic justice for the south Wales valleys resulted in two Welsh Government development programmes in the 2000s.
• We were instrumental in shaping the 2007-11 Welsh Assembly Government’s ‘progressive programme’ and in making poverty a priority for the 2011-6 administration.
• We put the question of new, devolved taxes into the public arena and informed the Welsh Government’s proposals to use its new taxation powers in the 2016-21 government.
• We were key in stopping the abolition of help with the costs of school uniform for poor children.
• We successfully campaigned for families to receive cash in lieu of a free school meal when schools closed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
• We improved access for people on low incomes to devolved grants and allowances, such as free school meals and council tax reduction. 

In 2020-21 we also:

• published 30 reports, more than 100 online articles and 17 briefings
• had UK, Welsh and specialist media coverage
• had 41,000 website visitors and 12,500 social media followers
• had 600 people attend our events
• gave expert evidence to five Welsh Parliament inquiries and three UK Parliament inquiries
• were quoted 50 times by MSs from all parties in Senedd business and contributed to Senedd research

Our funding

Many people and organisations enable the Foundation to make a big impact.

Subscriptions and donations

More than 100 organisations of all kinds have a subscription to our unique insights and opportunities to learn and network with others. Each contributes £400 (£300 for charities).

Hundreds of individuals support the Bevan Foundation with either one-off or regular donations. Their support enables us to speak out, develop solutions and make a difference.

In 2021/22 subscriptions and donations raised a total of £68,070.

Trusts and Foundations

Specific projects are supported by charitable trusts and foundations. Funders in 2021-22 that contributed more than £5,000 were:

• Abrdn Financial Fairness Trust (£50,000)
• Joseph Rowntree Foundation (£94,719)
• Lloyds Bank Foundation (£20,000)
• Wales Council for Voluntary Action Third Sector Resilience Fund (£46,310)
• Waterloo Foundation (£15,000)

Some of grants awarded include sums that were re-granted to community groups.

The charity also received grants from four funders of less than £5,000 each which are listed in its annual report and accounts.

Other income

The Bevan Foundation generates income from providing training and organising events (£6,922 in 2021/22), and small-scale commissioned research (contributions over £5,000 were received from Beth Winter MP (£8,250)).

We are a registered charity no. 1104191 and company limited by guarantee no. 4175018