Smarter giving can transform education if we get it right

The Government’s Our Place to Give strategy is a welcome recognition that philanthropy has a vital role to play in tackling inequality and strengthening communities across the UK. It signals an ambition to connect generosity with impact, ensuring that giving is not only encouraged but effective.

At SHINE, we operate at the intersection of wealth advice, charitable giving and front-line impact. We see first-hand the growing appetite among donors and advisers to move beyond reactive or reputational giving towards something that delivers measurable outcomes for the communities it seeks to serve.

Nowhere is that more urgent than in education.

For children from disadvantaged backgrounds, the barriers to opportunity remain stubbornly high. Public funding is essential to sustaining the education system at scale, but it is – by necessity – cautious. Bound by cycles of accountability and constrained by risk, it is not always designed to test new approaches or to move quickly when innovation is needed.

This is where philanthropy has a distinctive and indispensable role.

Philanthropy can act as the risk capital of social progress. It can back early-stage ideas, fund pilots, and support organisations developing new ways to improve outcomes for the most vulnerable learners. It can move faster, take informed risks, and help build the evidence base that ultimately informs policy and public investment.

If Our Place to Give is to succeed, it must champion not just more giving but better giving. That means embedding investment discipline into philanthropy itself: clear objectives, defined outcomes, evidence-led decision-making, and rigorous evaluation.

The strategy rightly emphasises local giving, and it also confronts a persistent imbalance: too little philanthropic capital flows to regions where need is greatest. The North of England, in particular, continues to receive a disproportionately small share of UK giving.

The Government has opened an important conversation with Our Place to Give. The next step is to ensure that this conversation translates into action that is as rigorous as it is generous.

Because philanthropy, done well, is not simply about giving more. It is about giving smarter and building solutions that endure.

Fiona Spellmam, CEO of SHINE