The primary purpose of the Ragdoll Foundation is to make grants for charitable purposes around the world that:
- Promote the development of children through their imaginative thinking
- Encourage innovative thinking and influence good practice elsewhere
- Offer creative solutions that deal with the causes of problems in childhood
- Ensures effective evaluation of projects to promote sharing and learning
- Above all demonstrate how the voices of children can be heard
Preference will be given to innovative projects that share the same values of imagination and creativity as the Ragdoll Foundation. In particular, those projects which show a true understanding of how to listen to children and allow the voices of children themselves to be heard.
We will focus mainly on applications which involve children during their early years, but appropriate projects for older children will not be dismissed without consideration.
Grants will also be made to projects, organisations or individuals through personal recommendation or knowledge of those connected with the Ragdoll Foundation. The Trustees wish to make a range of grants available. We will consider a large scale grant, but it is anticipated that the majority will range from £500 upwards.
Foundations can be truly innovative when they retain a capacity for thinking and working outside the box. In order to achieve this we have re-structured the application and monitoring process. We have replaced it with a process that we hope will encourage new ways of thinking and working. We aim to develop and establish governance models that treat innovation as a process. We welcome your feedback.