Published reports
The work of the Foundation between 1984 and 1996 was summarised in two reports, covering respectively the five years 1984-89 and the seven years 1989-96. A third report, produced in 2004, 'Funding Policy Change for a Better Society in the North East of England', covering the period 1996-2004, can be viewed by downloading a PDF version.
Annual grant payments averaged £122,000 between 1998/99 and 2003/04. A list of the larger current and recent grants, with contact details, can be seen on this website in Current and recent grants.
A number of features may be noted in the 1996-2004 report:
- The Trustees' intention to make fewer and larger grants has been achieved.
- Most of the grants have contributed to public debate and the policy-making process.
- Several grants were to national organisations, but in each case the work financed by the grant was undertaken primarily in Tyne & Wear. Others cover the whole of the North East; Trustees accept that the new policy will often require a regional perspective.
- Within the new programme's sharp focus on policy work there has been a broad coverage of social policy issues and types of need - families, young mothers and pregnant young women, the role of fathers, emotionally vulnerable children, safety of children at work, child employment, young people's attitudes to racism and bullying, older people with learning disabilities, people with dementia and their carers, refugees and asylum seekers, disability in sight and hearing, carers' contribution to consultations, people with mental health problems who are at risk of offending, debt, food poverty, financial exclusion and social investment, employment and unemployment, the minimum wage, transport and social exclusion, the urban environment, neighbourhood safety, community involvement in strategies for waste management, relations between the voluntary and public sectors and the region's governance.
- In 2003/4 MHF enabled the Institute for Public Policy Research to establish IPPR North, whose running costs between 2004 and 2009 are being largely met by grants from MHF and the Northern Rock Foundation.
- The Trustees recognise that, under the current policy, monitoring and evaluation are more difficult and more important than before. The Administrator, Terence Finley, has undertaken these functions since early 1999 and provides a report to each Trustees' meeting.