Letchworth Garden City was originally founded on the pioneering vision that people’s lives improve when homes, green spaces and jobs are planned in sync. Ebenezer Howard imagined a place where homes, work, green space, culture, learning and community worked together to produce a better quality of life.
This month, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation keeps that founding promise by maintaining a commitment to climate action and social justice. One such way is by participating in the Funder Commitment on Climate Change (FCCC), a framework hosted by the Association of Charitable Foundations.
Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation first signed up to the FCCC in 2023. The partnership is about more than signing a statement; it’s about ensuring an alignment of resources, influence and partnerships.
What does the Funder Commitment on Climate Change mean?
The FCCC recognises that every foundation, regardless of mission or size, has a key role to play in tackling the causes and impact of climate change. It was launched in 2019 and is now supported by more than 100 signatories. The initiative asks funders to take action in five key areas and to report publicly on their progress each year.
The five key areas include understanding and reducing the climate impact of an organisation's own operations, integrating climate considerations into funding and investment decisions, working with partners and grantees and using their voice to advocate for a just, sustainable transition.
The Funder Commitment on Climate Change is part of the wider Philanthropy For Climate movement, which supports foundations to embed climate action across governance, assets, grant-making, operations, advocacy and transparency. Its 2026 State of the Movement Report shows that this is increasingly becoming part of mainstream philanthropic practice, with foundations using the framework to move from intention to structured action. For Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation, this matters because our climate work is not separate from our charitable purpose: it connects how we fund local organisations, manage and invest our assets, care for the Garden City estate, support nature and wellbeing, and use our role as a place-based foundation to contribute to a fairer, more resilient future.
These areas align closely with Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation’s existing sustainability strategy, which makes sustainability a strategic priority and outlines goals across environment, social impact and governance, including a net‑zero carbon ambition and a focus on nature and wellbeing.
From global to local
The FCCC operates at a national and international level, but it is rooted in the day‑to‑day decisions of individual foundations in places such as Letchworth. As a self‑funding charitable organisation responsible for much of the 5,500‑acre Garden City estate, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation uses the income from its property portfolio to support local charities, social infrastructure and green spaces.
This means that the foundation addresses climate from a range of perspectives, carefully balancing the heart of the Garden City vision with the need to adapt and grow with an increasing UK population and evolving local communities. We manage a varied estate, from homes and commercial property to cultural venues, green spaces and rural land. Each asset has a role to play. Some generate income. Some provide direct community benefit. Others need fresh thinking to meet changing needs.
As a funder, we use our strategy to incorporate climate, nature, and social value into how grants are assessed and awarded. For example, we support local action on climate change with green initiatives such as the Letchworth Shed, receiving community grants.
As a civic partner, we can work alongside local authorities, national bodies, community groups and other foundations to share our learning and influence wider practice in the heritage and place‑based funding sectors. Letchworth is one of more than 100 foundations learning together about how to connect climate, community and mission, and we feed those lessons back into the town’s long‑term plans.
Strategic Investments
Like other endowed Foundations, we work with fund managers to make sure that our money works hard for us whilst limiting the impact on the planet. Our portfolio is invested using industry-leading approaches, avoiding the most harmful industries, and investing with organisations that are committed to reporting and improving their social and environmental impact.
Climate action for people
The foundation’s 2028 Sustainability Strategy has a focus on Letchworth being a great place to grow up and an emphasis on improving prosperity and life chances. This focus includes extensive community consultation and encouraging the young people of the town to have a voice. In this way, acting on climate change doesn’t happen in isolation; it becomes a whole-community initiative.
To mark Green Week in 2026, a special screening of Power Station is being shown at the cinema. It provides the local community with a networking opportunity to increase momentum for community energy in the Letchworth and surrounding areas. As well as an opportunity to speak with those who have established projects, and with the co-director of the film.
Next steps
However, continued participation in the FCCC is not the endpoint. Over the coming years, Letchworth Garden City Heritage Foundation will continue to implement its Sustainability Strategy, invest in carbon reduction and nature recovery and refine the ways in which climate and social value are built into its grant‑making and everyday decisions. The world’s first Garden City is still evolving, and climate, community and fairness remain an important part of what happens next.