As The Tubney Charitable Trust prepares to close its doors in March 2012, it has published an honest, 'warts-and-all' account of the lessons it has learned over the last 15 years on a mission to encourage biodiversity, improve the welfare of farmed animals as well as support palliative care and education.

Giving our all: reflections of a spend out charity details the journey, decisions, successes and failures made while spending £65m at the bequest of founders Miles and Briony Blackwell. 

Tubney’s chief executive Sarah Ridley says: “We have known from the outset that we would be spending out, so a major part of our thinking has been to make sure organisations are sustainable when our funding comes to an end.”

On virtually every page a learning is shared backed by a case study or the funding experiences of the trust.

At the launch of the report this week (November 7) Tubney’s chair René Olivieri said among the most important lessons it wanted to share was that trusts and foundations should take risks “because they can.”

He also paid tribute to the founders who tragically died in 2001 three years after establishing the organisation. He said they had wanted no recognition for their philanthropy but felt it right to thank them. 

Among the many lessons shared, are “plan and prioritise and don’t lose sight of the big issues in dealing with the mountain of practical details” as well as “focus on organisations that are best equipped to make a sustained difference in the future”.

It also lists 10 reasons to consider spending out. These include:

• To focus attention
• To avoid the possibility that the purpose will become obsolete or obscured
• To avoid creating an ongoing bureaucracy

Over the last 18 months Tubney has allowed the organisations it was funding to spend time and money planning for the future. “Many of them say this is the most important thing they have ever done and has changed the way they operate.”

As well as grant funding to allow this thinking time, Tubney has provided consultancy from staff, support from trustees as a sounding board and access to networks.

Olivieri said:”There is no question in our minds that ‘spend out’ focuses the collective mind and resources of a trust in an extraordinary way and can do more to achieve a trust’s long-term goals than a slow, modest, and possibly uninspired, perpetual outward flow of funds.”

The publication can be downloaded from www.Tubney.org.uk/publications