The Trust will mark its centenary year in 2019 and having fulfilled most of its original charitable objectives has turned its attention to the future and to mark the centenary year of the Trust, has undertaken a major strategic review of direction.
In recent years, Trustees have increasingly focused their attention on making small grants to support the education of girls and women in developing countries. Driven by a vision that echoes the original intentions of Sir Ernest Cassel to effect longer term social change, that will go beyond individual benefit and will leave a legacy for future generations, the Trust will now focus on work that advances the inclusion, engagement and retention of girls and women in education and onwards through to employment. The areas of focus will be across South Asia and Sub Saharan Africa and the work will focus on the territories where the impact can be the greatest for the most excluded girls and young women, in low income countries.
It is Trustees’ intention that once the Sir Ernest Cassel Centenary Awards have been made and the subsequent monitoring and evaluation process is complete, that they will have expended all of the Trust’s resources and the Trust will close.
The selection process for these awards is now well underway and the programme is therefore closed to new applicants. We expect to make the final selection in July 2019 and will publish details here in due course.