Publications

Annual Report 2014

Learn more about Oak and the great work of our partners by reading our 2014 annual report.

Annual Report 2014

Annual Report 2015

Learn more about Oak and the great work of our partners by reading our 2015 annual report.

Annual Report 2015

Annual Report 2016

Learn more about Oak and the great work of our partners by reading our 2016 annual report.

Annual Report 2016

Annual Report 2017

Learn more about Oak and the great work of our partners by reading our 2017 annual report.

Annual Report 2017

Annual Report 2018

Learn more about Oak and the great work of our partners by reading our 2018 annual report.

Annual Report 2018

Annual Report 2019

Check out Oak’s 2019 annual report, which has just been published! We hope you will like the new design and that you enjoy reading about the great work of our partners.

Annual Report 2019

Funding Organisational Development

Oak Foundation together with Laudes Foundation, MAVA Foundation, Mercator Foundation and PeaceNexus Foundation reflected on, articulated and shared their learning about supporting Organisational Development (OD). In this paper they share their key insights on how to engage in OD, describe a standard OD process and address dilemmas. It promotes OD as a key dimension in the daily work of any grant making foundation.

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Forces for Nature – An interview with Kristian Parker

Kristian is the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for Oak Foundation, based in Switzerland. He oversees Oak’s Environment Programme. Read about his interview with the Environmental Funders Network where he talks about Oak's Environmental Programme, our core funding grants and offers some advice to new funders interested in supporting environmental work.

Forces for Nature - An interview with Kristian Parker

Planning for monitoring, learning and evaluation (MEL)

The following publication was developed to give the Oak Foundation a sense of how other foundations are tackling monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) questions, and to show a range of options for Oak to consider as it develops its own MEL Plan. If you are curious to learn more, check out the following document.

Planning for monitoring, learning and evaluation

Resonance in a stakeholder ecology

The goal of this study is to identify key factors of success and practical processes that enable funders to engage effectively with intermediaries. This study is part of a learning process at Oak Foundation and provides an external view to aid Oak in the development of its thinking.

Resonance in a stakeholder ecology

Grantee Perception Report 2011

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) conducts surveys of grantees on their perceptions of their philanthropic funders both on behalf of individual funders and independently. The purpose of these surveys is two-fold: to gather data that is useful to individual funders and to form the basis for broadly applicable research reports. The Grantee Perception Report (GPR) shows an individual philanthropic funder its grantee perceptions relative to a set of perceptions of other funders whose grantees were surveyed by CEP. Check out the following document to read the results of the survey conducted with Oak grantees in 2011.

Grantee Reception Report 2011

Grantee Perception Report 2016

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) conducts surveys of grantees on their perceptions of their philanthropic funders both on behalf of individual funders and independently. The purpose of these surveys is two-fold: to gather data that is useful to individual funders and to form the basis for broadly applicable research reports. The Grantee Perception Report (GPR) shows an individual philanthropic funder its grantee perceptions relative to a set of perceptions of other funders whose grantees were surveyed by CEP. Check out the following document to read the results of the survey conducted with Oak grantees in 2016.

Grantee Perception Report 2016

Grantee Perception Report 2011

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) conducts surveys of grantees on their perceptions of their philanthropic funders both on behalf of individual funders and independently. The purpose of these surveys is two-fold: to gather data that is useful to individual funders and to form the basis for broadly applicable research reports. The Grantee Perception Report (GPR) shows an individual philanthropic funder its grantee perceptions relative to a set of perceptions of other funders whose grantees were surveyed by CEP. Check out the following document to read the results of the survey conducted with Oak grantees in 2011.

Grantee Reception Report 2011

Grantee Perception Report 2016

The Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) conducts surveys of grantees on their perceptions of their philanthropic funders both on behalf of individual funders and independently. The purpose of these surveys is two-fold: to gather data that is useful to individual funders and to form the basis for broadly applicable research reports. The Grantee Perception Report (GPR) shows an individual philanthropic funder its grantee perceptions relative to a set of perceptions of other funders whose grantees were surveyed by CEP. Check out the following document to read the results of the survey conducted with Oak grantees in 2016.

Grantee Perception Report 2016

Global branding and media guidelines Denmark

If you feel that mentioning our funding or using our logo would enhance your programme or organisation, please follow the information outlined in this document. Here you will find out more about our branding and media guidelines for grantees in Danish.

Oak Foundation global branding and media guidelines dk

Global branding and media guidelines English version

If you feel that mentioning our funding or using our logo would enhance your programme or organisation, please follow the information outlined in this document. Here you will find out more about our global branding and media guidelines for grantees.

Oak Foundation global branding and media guidelines eng

Global branding and media guidelines India

If you feel that mentioning our funding or using our logo would enhance your programme or organisation, please follow the information outlined in this document. Here you will find out more about our branding and media guidelines for grantees in India.

Oak Foundation global branding and media guidelines India

Global branding and media guidelines Portuguese

If you feel that mentioning our funding or using our logo would enhance your programme or organisation, please follow the information outlined in this document. Here you will find out more about our branding and media guidelines for grantees in Portuguese.

Oak Foundation global branding and media guidelines pt

Photography guidelines

Oak loves sharing photos of peoples' beautiful faces, but we must be sure to maintain the highest ethical and professional standards when taking and using images. Follow the general principles in these photography guidelines to protect children and adults from harm.

Oak Foundation photography guidelines

Regranting guidelines

These guidelines will help programme staff develop a re-granting project and establish the optimum re-granting relationship. The aim of these guidelines is not to prescribe a particular approach or structure for re-granting, but to bring together the experience in re-granting of Oak programme staff and their peers in other foundations.

Oak Foundation regranting guidelines

Foundation wide newsletter December 2019

The following bi-annual Oak wide newsletter contains a happy holidays message from our President and reveals Oak's updated website, new programme strategies and more.

Foundation wide newsletter December 2019

Foundation wide newsletter July 2020

The following bi-annual Oak wide newsletter contains a letter from our president, an update about how we have been supporting our partners through Covid-19, an interview with our new Housing and Homelessness Programme director and more.

Foundation wide newsletter July 2020

Foundation wide newsletter March 2019

The following bi-annual Oak wide newsletter contains an opening letter from Oak's new president, information about core support grants, an interview with the Chair of the Board of Trustees and more.

Foundation wide newsletter March 2019

Child Safeguarding Policy

As a part of our responsibility for the safety and protection of children, the first Oak Safeguarding Children Policy was adopted in 2013. This policy applies to all Oak Foundation staff, consultants, contractors and volunteers. Discover what this policy entails by reading the following document.

Child Safeguarding Policy

How can we “build back better”? July 2020

A part of July 2020s' newsletter and against a backdrop of dramatic world events, Oak's President grapples with how we can “build back better”. Read on to find out how he thinks this is possible.

How can we “build back better”? July 2020

Evaluation conducted on marine protected areas – Environment Programme

The marine sub-programme commissioned an evaluation of its impact on ocean conservation which was conducted by consultants Mark Valentine and Bernd Cordes. We asked ourselves a fundamental question: how large an area of the ocean have Oak Foundation grantees helped to protect via the creation and enforcement of marine protected areas?

Highlights of an Oak evaluation on marine protected areas

Evaluation conducted on philanthropy in India – Evironment Programme

Between December 2015 and September 2017, three of Oak’s climate and energy programme grantees conducted external evaluations with the support of Oak. All three of these organisations are think tanks based in India. The evaluations were not aimed at rating performance but were instead meant to help the organisations understand their efficiency, relevance and ability to identify new opportunities. The evaluations presented a great opportunity for us to not only learn more about these organisations, but also reflect on the process of evaluations themselves.

Highlights of an Oak evaluation conducted on philanthropy in India

Evaluation on sustainable cities – Environment Programme

To better understand Oak’s role in shaping the future prosperity of a city, we recently undertook an evaluation of the impact of our sustainable cities grant-making. The results provided an interesting insight into what was working, what was not and how we can take these learnings forward.

Highlights of an Oak evaluation on sustainable cities

New strategy and strategic learning and evaluation system – Issues Affecting Women Programme

The Issues Affecting Women Programme (IAWP) developed a new strategic plan over the course of 2011 with two pillars: building women’s rights movements and combating violence against women. Read more about the programme's new strategy and strategic evaluation system here.

Issues affecting women strategic learning and evaluation system

Partner Resource Guide – Learning Differences Programme

The Learning Differences Programme is committed to Oak-supported resources being freely available to help diverse learners thrive. In this resource guide you can learn of some of the tools and resources that support students with learning disabilities and learning differences and their educators and families. We hope you will find them useful.

LDP Partner Resource Guide

Programme evaluation – Evironment Programme

This is an Executive Summaryof a full evaluation conducted for the Oak Foundation in 2015. The evaluation provided an externalassessment of the impact of the Oak Foundation’s climate and marine philanthropy from 2009 to 2014, and the effectiveness of the strategies, internal structures, and approaches deploy

Programme evaluation executive summary

Programme Strategy – India Programme

Oak Foundation’s India Programme strategically partners with and invests in not-for-profit organisations that supports efforts to sustainably improve the lives of marginalised people in West Bengal, a state in the eastern region of India on the Bay of Bengal. These include vulnerable workers, Indigenous communities known as Adivasis, and adult and child migrants, whose needs and rights have been neglected for decades.

Supporting equitable opportunities for all: A programme strategy

Programme strategy – Learning Differences Programme

Oak Foundation’s Learning Differences Programme strategically partners with and invests in not-for-profit organisations that improve education for students with learning differences. Learn more about the programme strategy here.

Unlocking the potential of all learners: A programme strategy

Research to Action: Improving K-3 Literacy Instruction – Learning Differences Programme

Oak Foundation partnered with Education First, a national education strategy and policy consulting organisation, to research efforts to improve students’ literacy in the early grades of their schooling, with special attention to supporting students with learning differences.

Early literacy landscape scan - executive summary Early literacy landscape scan - full report

Rethinking the way learning happens – Learning Differences Programme

Based on interviews with students, families, teachers, and leaders, the LDP identified several attributes we believe are critical to realising our vision of building a world in which schools unlock the creativity and power of students with learning differences – along with every young person – and equip them to shape more just and equitable communities. To learn more about these attributes, click on the document below. Within the document, you can find links to a Resource Library aimed at supporting practitioners working to build those attributes and an Assessment Library to identify metrics and assessments for monitoring student development of the attributes.

Rethinking the way learning happens

Small scale fisheries strategy – Environment Programme

The following document gives context on Oak's small scale fishery strategy and ellaborates on the sub-programmes' approach to attaining its vision and goals.

Small scale fisheries strategy summary

Strategic reflection and assessment – International Human Rights Programme

This strategic reflection and assessment of Oak Foundation’s International Human Rights (IHR) Programme’s communications funding was conducted with the goal of learning lessons that can be applied to communications grant-­making by Oak and other funders going forward. This report seeks to review various approaches to assess its respective impact. Read more here.

Changing the story: A reflection on communications hubs

Summary of safeguarding learning review

This document is a summary of the outcomes presented in the safeguarding learning review report.

Summary of safeguarding learning review

Working within the confines of COVID-19

The following guide contains a collection of key organisational resources, tools and ideas that have recently materialised in an effort to support not-for-profit organisations during Covid-19.

Working within the confines of COVID-19