Astrid Bonfield

‘We said let’s have total focus on systemic change and go for really ambitious, bold outcomes’ says the CEO of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund as it comes to a close.

The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was set up four days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales on 31 August 1997 to receive the money that was flowing in from the public during that time. At the end of December this year, after 15 years of operation, the fund will close. Its grantees’ achievements in the last seven years include an international ban on cluster bombs and a 42 per cent reduction in child and youth imprisonment.

In her recent interview with Alliance magazine, CEO Astrid Bonfield looks back at the legacy of the fund. Expanding on her belief that making grants as though you’re spending out even if you aren’t is a really good discipline, Bonfield discusses how spending out affected the fund’s operations.

‘… As part of our exit strategy, we’ve had a very careful programme of capacity building, particularly with our partners in Africa…This capacity building hasn’t really changed our relationship with our grantees because we’ve always had such close partnerships with them. We’ve never taken a “we’ll fund your project but not your staff costs” approach: it’s the people within organizations who do the work after all. The funding certainly has been appreciated by our grantees. But ultimately stability comes from a system change…’

Read the full article on the Alliance website >

A previous interview with Astrid Bonfield was published by Alliance in January 2009. This interview looked at the success of the campaign by the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund for a global ban on cluster bombs. Read the previous article >

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