Shell Foundation

Shell Foundation is an independent UK registered charity^[1] established by the Shell Group in 2000^[2] to create and scale new solutions to global development challenges that are sustainable and generate large-scale impact. The Shell Foundation applies business thinking to major social and environmental issues linked with the energy sector.

The Foundation works with a small number of entrepreneurial partners to identify the market failures that underpin many of the world's problems and co-create new social enterprises to solve them. The Foundation provides patient grant funding, extensive business support, and access to networks which helps pioneers validate new models, achieve financial independence and expand across geographies.

Shell Foundation is a venture philanthropy group, funding enterprise-based models as a cost effective way to support inclusive economic development.

History

Shell Foundation was established in 2000 with an endowment to cover annual operating expenditure and ensure long-term financial independence. The Shell Group has also made additional donations on an annual basis since inception. The Foundation has also received additional unrestricted and restricted donations from public and private partners to help them further their charitable objectives.

Structure

Shell Foundation is registered with the UK Charity Commission.^[3] The governance structure includes a mixed Board of Trustees who oversees their work, including two senior leaders from the Shell Group and four leading figures from sectors related to international development.

The Foundation has its own set of Business Principles that encompasses their values, governs how they conduct their mission, and hold their staff and strategic partners accountable to it.

The Foundation maintains an independent yet linked relationship with their corporate founder which enables them to draw on specific technical and functional expertise, business tools and local networks where appropriate, in order to enhance their ability to achieve lasting public benefit at scale.

Activities

Shell Foundation’s activities focus on catalysing market-based solutions to tackle global development challenges in ways that can deliver global impact and can become financially-independent.^[4] This is done by firstly identifying the market failures that underpin major social and environmental problems and then co-creating new social enterprises and independent enablers to solve them. Shell Foundation also deploys a range of financial and non-financial support to demonstrate these models can work on a global scale and unlock private capital to fund growth and replication, and create enablers and the infrastructure needed to accelerate growth and replication.^[5]

To date, Shell Foundation has been addressing job creation through supporting the small and medium enterprise sector, access to energy, urban mobility and supply chain sustainability – and have created several strategic partners that are now delivering large-scale impact in multiple countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Partners

Shell Foundation form long-term partnerships with a small number of entrepreneurial partners that they consider as potential game-changers and pioneers of new products and services that deliver social and environmental benefit to low-income consumers.

Partners are carefully selected to jointly create market-based solutions that can earn income, achieve financial independence and deliver significant impact on a global scale. To do this, Shell Foundation runs pilot programs to assess the viability of business models, demonstrate technology and look for evidence of market demand. Once The Foundation's criteria have been met they use grant funding to take early-stage risk in order to validate and develop the most promising solutions. Normally, these partnerships can last between 3 – 6 years, and throughout this period the Shell Foundation provides its partners with a blend of patient grant funding, extensive business skills and market links.

Shell Foundation social enterprise partners include:

• Access to Energy Partners: Envirofit,^[6] D.light,^[7] M-kopa,^[8] Dharma Life,^[9] Husk Power Systems,^[10] Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves,^[11] Intellegrow,^[12] Factor(E)^[13]
• Sustainable Mobility Partners: EMBARQ,^[14] Smart Freight Centre^[15]
• Job Creation Partner: GroFin^[16]
• Sustainable Supply Chain Partners: CottonConnect,^[17] The Better Trading Company^[18]

Impact

Shell Foundation measures their performance on both their partners’ progress towards achieving sustainability and large-scale impact, as well as their cumulative impact. At the partner level, The Foundation tracks and monitors development outcomes such as low-income customers served, environmental benefit, economic benefit and social benefit – as well as financial sustainability.

Since 2010, Shell Foundation has used four metrics to measure their overall developmental impact: jobs created and sustained, livelihoods improved, carbon reduction and leveraged funding. They also share their annual impact figures.^[19]

Trustees

Shell Foundation has a mixed Board of Trustees which includes senior leaders from the Shell Group and leading figures from sectors relevant to international development.

• Malcolm Brinded - appointed as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Shell Foundation in 2009
• Mark Malloch-Brown - joined Shell Foundation Board of Trustees in June 2010
• Margaret Blick Kigozi - joined Shell Foundation Board of Trustees in July 2015
• Hugh Mitchell - joined Shell Foundation Board of Trustees in June 2013
• Ben van Beurden - joined Shell Foundation Board of Trustees in 2009
• Maxime Verhagen - joined Shell Foundation Board of Trustees in June 2014

Media Coverage

On 28 September 2006, an article published in The Guardian newspaper alleged that "An attempt by Shell to portray itself as a model of corporate social responsibility was undermined last night after Whitehall documents showed its charitable arm discussing a key commercial project with a British government minister." The article entitled "Campaigners attack Shell’s charity arm over Sakhalin talks" related to The Shell Foundation. The Charity Commission subsequently conducted an inquiry and according to an article published in The Guardian on 17 October 2006, concluded that The Shell Foundation "has fallen short of the good governance and decision-making that we expect from large charities”. Since then, with guidance from the Charity Commission the Foundation's protocols and control framework on maintaining independence have been strengthened, which was shared in an article published in The Guardian on 25 March 2013.^[20]

Further reading

• Enterprise Solutions to Scale
• Scaling Up Solutions for Sustainable Mobility
• Transforming Agricultural Supply Chains
• Social Marketing in India
• Beyond the Pioneer
• From Blueprint to Scale
• Small and Medium Enterprises in Middle East and North Africa
• Accelerating Access to Energy
• Enterprise Solutions to 2030

External links

Shell Foundation Website: http://www.shellfoundation.org/

Notes