About us
We like to invest in those who have great ideas and methods for improving the health and well-being of older people and in making the connections which can help them to flourish.
We do this through both grant-making and social investment and through convening networks of support like the Vivensa Academy and the UK Ageing Research Funders’ Forum and supporting UK AgeNet. You can find our Strategic Framework here, along with details of our people (staff, committee members and trustees), our policies and governance structure and our history.
Our Strategic Framework
Our Strategic Framework sets out the values that drive us, what we do and who we support. We refresh and re-publish it every five years and set out our priorities for funding for the five-year period. You can explore our current plans and framework here.
Our people
The charity is run by a staff team of eight, led by the Chief Executive who reports to the Board of Trustees. There are currently twelve Board members who can each serve up to two four-year terms of office and meet four times per year.
Reporting to the Board are three Committees: Research Grants Committee, Social Financing Committee and Investment Committee. Trustee committee members are assisted by a number of independent advisers who have professional expertise appropriate to the Committee they serve.
Click on the relevant category below to see Board and Committee members and on their images for career biographies and contact details.
Vacancies
We’re a highly collaborative team. We like to plan and be prepared, but we also like to be flexible and responsive to new ideas. We’re committed to making our contribution to understanding what it takes to improve health outcomes in later life and to the much-needed systemic change in health and social care for older people – so we want to work with people who share that commitment. We list our current vacancies and other opportunities to work with us here.
Reports
Vivensa Foundation files its Trustees’ Report and Accounts with the Charity Commission for England and Wales and with Companies House. You can find the most recent here.
Governance and policies
Our Articles of Association (pdf) is the constitutional document which sets out our charitable objects and our governing regulations.
The Vivensa Foundation accepts that organisations and individuals should be able to make complaints regarding any unsatisfactory aspects of its working practice. The purpose of this procedure is to set out a process for dealing with complaints which is fair and aims to resolve issues which may arise as quickly and reasonably as possible. The charity aims to ensure that its grant-making reflects best practice and reserves the right to determine how it carries out its work. It does, however, accept that from time to time issues might arise which may need to be resolved as a result of the charity’s interaction with grant applicants and grant holders, and other external individuals and organisations.
IT Security
Our IT security is important to us and we are Cyber Essentials accredited.
Information Security Policy (pdf)
Outsourcing and third party compliance Policy (pdf)
Information Handling Policy (pdf)
User and Password Management Policy (pdf)
Software Management Policy (pdf)
Mobile Computing and Remote Working Policy (pdf)
Data protection
The Vivensa Foundation holds personal data about its employees, Trustees and Committee members, grant holders, suppliers and other individuals for a variety of purposes relating to delivery of its charitable objectives. It seeks to adhere to the principles of data protection legislation, in particular to meet the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) effective May 2018 and updated subsequently by UK GDPR, which came into effect on 1 January, 2021.
This policy sets out how the charity seeks to protect personal data and ensure that its staff, Trustees and external advisors understand the rules governing their use of personal data to which they have access in the course of their work. In particular, this policy requires staff to ensure that the Chief Executive is consulted before any significant new data processing activity is initiated to ensure that relevant compliance steps are addressed. Any breach, whether deliberate or through negligence, may lead to disciplinary action being taken.
Download our Data protection policy (22-10) (pdf)
Our Privacy Notice is intended help our stakeholders to understand what information we collect about them, how we use it, how we protect any information that they give us and what choices they have.
Equality and diversity policy
The work we fund means that we know all too well the negative impacts of inequity. We are therefore committed to promoting equity, diversity and inclusion in all areas of our work.
We recognise the inherent benefits of having a diverse board and workforce and the negative impact of discrimination on us and the communities that we serve. We work hard to promote a culture of respect and dignity and work within the practice – and the spirit – of the Equalities Act 2010. We do our very best to proactively combat behaviours and barriers that can lead to discrimination.
Our equality and diversity policy is in three parts:
- The charity as a funder.
- The charity as an employer.
- The charity as a partner.
Download our Equality and Diversity Policy (pdf).
We also have a Board Diversity Action Plan (pdf) which was approved by the Board in June 2022 and is subject to regular review. Please note, we do not publish numbers and targets relating to our equality and diversity policy. While we collect data (where we have permission to do so) and monitor it to use it in our planning and decision-making, to publish it would risk making special category data about individuals identifiable owing to our size.
Modern Slavery statement
The Vivensa Foundation has a zero-tolerance approach to modern slavery, and we strive to act ethically and with integrity in all of our business dealings and relationships to ensure that modern slavery is not taking place anywhere in our own organisation. We will also ensure our approach and stance is clear with our partners, applicants and award-holders.
Download our Statement on Modern Slavery (pdf)
Safeguarding policy
Organisations that work regularly with vulnerable people (children or adults at risk, their parents, carers or families) need to comply with safeguarding legislation and best practice recommendations. While the charity does not work directly with groups defined by the Care Act 2014 as vulnerable, it expects and requires organisations who do and which it funds, or with which it collaborates, to have suitable policies and mechanisms in place to prevent and address incidents of exploitation, abuse or harm.
Download our safeguarding policy (pdf).
Staff handbook
The health and well-being of our small staff team is hugely important to us. Our Staff Handbook sets out all of our HR-related policies, including our sector-leading family-friendly (parental and carer’s leave) policies and our pay and benefits.
Download our Staff handbook 22-11 (pdf)
We are a Living Wage Employer.
Financial and governance history of the Vivensa Foundation
Herbert E. Dunhill (1882-1950) was a British businessman who was a Director in his family’s business, Alfred Dunhill Ltd, which was named after his brother. On his death, Herbert left shares in this business in a charitable trust to be used for medical research. Tuberculosis had been the cause of his ill health throughout much of his life. This trust later became a registered charity and who we are today.
We share our history, alongside the origin and evolution of our endowment and its stewardship and governance, to acknowledge the investments we’ve had in the past and to stay accountable for what we invest in now and in the future.
Summary
- Our endowment originates from a personal legacy from Herbert E.Dunhill in the form of shares in his family’s business, Alfred Dunhill Ltd, of which he was a Director. Alfred Dunhill Ltd was known for its range of luxury leather goods, motoring accessories, tobacco and pipes, and, over the years, the company derived substantial profit from tobacco and related products.
- The assets from the Will Trust of Herbert E. Dunhill were transferred into a new charity called The Dunhill Medical Trust in 1988. Ageing related research had been added as a charitable object around this time.
- The charity’s shares in Alfred Dunhill Ltd started to be disposed of in 1989 and in their entirety by 1998, and no direct investment in tobacco stocks has been made since.
- The proceeds from the sale of the shares were re-invested in a diversified portfolio of stocks, shares, bonds, and property. Investments in collective funds that contained tobacco stocks started to be disposed of during the 2010s, and our investment portfolio has been free from indirect tobacco exposure since 2020.
- Today’s charity now has clear tobacco and fossil fuel exclusions in its Investment Policy.
- As a health research funder, the Vivensa Foundation has no connection with the tobacco industry and complies fully with the Joint Protocol of Cancer Research and Universities UK on Tobacco Industry Funding to Universities (2004).
- The charity was derived from a personal legacy and has never been a corporate foundation of Alfred Dunhill Ltd, Dunhill Holdings Plc or any related subsidiaries.
Our origin
1950: Hebert E. Dunhill dies. He was a director in the family business – Alfred Dunhill Ltd.
Herbert leaves his assets in a Will Trust to support his wife Violet and other family members. His wishes were that, after Violet’s death, a substantial part of the Will Trust should be used for the furtherance of medical knowledge and research, in light of his own experience of ill-health resulting from the effects of tuberculosis.
1961: Herbert’s niece, Mary Dunhill Lane, is appointed one of the original Trustees of the Will Trust, alongside her brother, also called Alfred Dunhill, and Samuel Cash. It is largely Mary’s vision that drove the Charity until her death in 1988.
In 1961, Mary Dunhill Lane is appointed company Chair of Alfred Dunhill Ltd, having been a Director since 1943.
1963: Violet Dunhill dies, and the second part of Herbert’s Will Trust comes into effect.
Shares in Alfred Dunhill Ltd, we believe worth around £250,000, are put into Charitable Trust for medical research and so the Trust becomes a substantial shareholder in Alfred Dunhill Ltd.
Re-directing our mission to ageing-related research
1980s: By the 1980s, the Will Trust is receiving an increasing number of applications for research and support associated with ageing and the care of older people.
Although there is a clear case of unmet need, many applications cannot be supported because they fall outside the aims of the Trust.
1986: With the agreement of the Charity Commissioners, the funds comprising the Charitable Trust previously contained in Herbert E. Dunhill’s will are reconstituted and the charitable objects broadened to include research into the care of older people and the provision of accommodation and care for older people.
1988: Mary Dunhill Lane dies and her daughter, Kay Glendinning, continues her work as Executive Director of The Dunhill Medical Trust.
By a scheme dated 15 April, 1988, The Charity Commissioners direct that the assets previously administered under the Will Trust of Herbert Dunhill be administered and managed as part of the property of a charity called The Dunhill Medical Trust.
Disposing of our direct tobacco-related investments
1989: The shares in Alfred Dunhill Ltd are disposed of in tranches over time. The charity begins diversifying the investment portfolio by adding property and other UK equity funds, followed by overseas equity and global bonds in the early 1990s.
1994: All of the remaining shares in Alfred Dunhill Ltd, now worth c.£5M, are converted into Rothmans shares and Vendôme Luxury Group shares as a result of the corporate re-structuring of Dunhill Holdings Plc. All of the Rothmans shares and some of the Vendôme shares are sold by the charity immediately, and the remainder are sold off in tranches, year by year, until 1998.
1997: The Cancer Research Campaign publishes its consultation paper ‘Breaking addiction to tobacco funding’. This consultation goes on to establish the policy that grant making bodies will not fund any research team in receipt of, or sharing resources with those in receipt of, tobacco industry funding.
1998: The remaining shares in the Vendôme Luxury Group are disposed of fully. No direct investment in tobacco stocks has been made since.
The Cancer Research Campaign writes to The Dunhill Medical Trust confirming that as the charity no longer has an association with tobacco funding, it is exempt under its code of practice (the forerunner of the 2004 Cancer Research UK Joint Protocol with Universities UK).
Strengthening our governance
2004: The charity prioritises support for ageing well and older people, although it still funds broader medical research.
2005: Kay Glendinning retires as Executive Director and joins the Board of Trustees in a non-executive capacity.
A non-Dunhill family member becomes the charity’s next Executive Director and a Grants and Research Committee and an Investment Committee are established onto which external experts are recruited.
2011: The Dunhill Medical Trust becomes a charitable company limited by guarantee and re-registers with the Charity Commission with its new charitable structure.
Disposing of our indirect tobacco-related investments
2013: New Trustees start to be brought onto the Board using open recruitment.
The Board discusses the reputational implications of indirect tobacco investments in the charity’s investment portfolio. Tobacco company holdings are present in some of the charity’s collective fund investments. The charity’s investment consultants advise the Trustees that excluding funds containing tobacco investments would put achieving the financial return needed to support the grant-making programme at risk.
2015: The Board again debates the suitability of indirect tobacco investments and directs the Investment Committee to keep exposure ‘as low as possible’ and under regular review.
2016: By this time, less than 5% of the investment portfolio is exposed to indirect tobacco investments.
A tobacco exclusion is introduced as a screening criterion for new investments, and regular reviews of any indirect tobacco investment exposure continue.
2019: Kay Glendinning steps down as a Trustee and becomes the Trust’s first Patron.
A hard tobacco exclusion is written into a revised Investment Policy and the funds containing the final 1.2% of indirect tobacco exposure are sold.
A name to better match our current and future funding mission
2020: From March 2020, the charity’s investment portfolio is free from indirect tobacco exposure and there has been no indirect exposure to tobacco since.
The charity’s 2020–2025 strategic framework is launched and £5M is ringfenced to establish a fund to be used for social investment.
2023: The charity revises its Investment Policy to reflect a responsible and impact-conscious approach to managing its investments.
A Chief Investment Officer is appointed to lead the implementation of a socially responsible and impact-conscious investment strategy.
2024: Following the High Court’s Butler-Sloss and Others vs Charity Commission decision, the Board further refines the Investment Policy and adds a new exclusion for fossil fuel investments.
2025: Responding to feedback from its award-holders, partners and other stakeholders, the charity changes its name to the Vivensa Foundation to better reflect its mission and work as a funder and as an impact-intentional investor. The word Vivensa is derived from the Latin word ‘to live’ or ‘to be alive’.
The 2025–2030 strategic framework is launched, building on the values and principles-based approach launched in 2020.
During the 21st century, the charity has committed over £100M to supporting researchers and clinicians, community organisations and other innovators dedicated to improving health and care for people in the UK. Of this, more that £20M has been invested in early career researchers and launched some important and impactful careers. We’re now looking forward to the next chapter in our evolution.