[ PHILANTHROPIC POSTURE ]

Governance

We aim to be transparent about how we make decisions as a funder.

Here, we set out our governance structure, our standards and decision processes, and the commitments we make to the organisations we fund.

[ BOARD & STRUCTURE ]

Our board of trustees

Our board of trustees is small and agile, and brings together multidisciplinary perspective across philanthropy, systems-change, long-term investment and partnerships.

Bertrand Perrodo

CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER

Bertrand is the founder and chair of NILO Foundation. He built his career in finance, founding BNF, Perwyn…

and Kronos. He believes in a distinctive approach of building human-centred and long-term partnerships.

Throughout his life, Bertrand held a strong conviction: that education — and in particular the skills of empathy, cooperation and resilience — is essential to navigating today’s complex challenges. From early on, he supported a range of youth charities. In 2021, he decided to set up NILO Foundation, as a vehicle for strategic, systemic philanthropy, and to help drive the shift toward a society that prioritises wellbeing, resilience, and human development.

Aurelia Kassatly

TRUSTEE

Aurelia is the Head of Business Performance at the Charities Aid Foundation, where she supports…

the Managing Director and his Senior Leadership team with strategy, business planning, governance, risk and change management. Prior to this, Aurelia worked with CAF’s high net worth private clients as a Senior Relationship Manager and at Founders Pledge as their Deployment Director. Outside of work, Aurelia has a keen interest in the visual arts and is a Trustee of the Artists Futures Fund, a small charity with a long history, focussed on supporting talented emerging artists facing significant barriers to building sustainable careers in the arts.

Rowena Teall

TRUSTEE

Rowena Teall is a Trustee of NILO Foundation. She has worked in philanthropy for more than a…

decade, with a focus on climate and social justice, and is based in North Yorkshire.

She works in the Philanthropic Partnerships team at Global Greengrants Fund. Her earlier roles include supporting just transitions across Europe at Open Society Foundations, and working on the International Development and Strengthening Civil Society programmes at the Baring Foundation. She has also connected funders with the communities they seek to serve at 10 Years’ Time, and worked in the International Human Rights team at the Oak Foundation.

She holds an MSc in Human Rights and Development from Durham University.

[ DECISION STRUCTURE ]

How decisions are made

Our selection workflow is built around clarity and respect for partners’ time.  Decision-making flows transparently through three explicit phases that usually take 6 to 9 months for every programme and selection cycle.

Operational Team

Research & Identification

The operational team runs proactive, in-depth landscape research over several months to identify a list of potential partners that align to its current programmatic strategy. Organisations can always reach out to us if they judge that their work aligns with NILO Foundation’s thematic focus and associated theory of change.

Advisory Council

Due Diligence & Review

The team selects a small pool of organisations for enhanced due diligence, mainly based on in-depth interviews and reviews of existing organisational documents. No application forms are required.

We replace standard diagnostic grids with collaborative posture checks. The board of trustees steps in early during this phase to provide a first assessment.

Board of Trustees

Voting & Deal Structuring

The operational team finalises the due-diligence with a reduced number of organisations, and the Trustees review the synthesised findings at board meetings.

Final funding calls are decided by a majority vote, committing to long-term multi-year support, designed with the needs of partners in mind.

[ FUNDING & INDEPENDENCE ]

Sovereignty in our resources

We operate on private, independent capital. This gives us total autonomy to prioritise systemic long-term goals without the risk of interference.

Our freedom from external fundraising pressures means we can resource field-builders for the long haul. Rather than monitoring short-term metrics to satisfy corporate sponsors, we focus purely on structural progress.

[ OUR STANDARDS ]

Robust standards, trust-based mechanisms

We make sure that trust-based funding comes after a deep conviction of the quality of the organisation we fund, and our ability to be a good partner for them. Every partnership begins with thorough due diligence.

Evidence-based

We evaluate an organisation’s ability to design their programmes and activities based on evidence and learnings.

Systemic

We look at an organisation’s track record and ability to influence and effect change, to be conscious of their strategic position in the ecosystem they operate in, and the coherence and systemic aspect of their future plans.

Strong operations

Our team also looks at the generosity and experience of their leadership, the organisation’s operational capacity, and if the 3-5-year ambitions are declared in clear operational plans.

Safeguarding and compliance

Given our focus on youth, we hold our partners to strict children safeguarding protocols.
We also ensure structures are robustly reviewed by certified auditors in the UK and France for financial probity and transparency.

[ WHAT WE PROMISE OUR PARTNERS ]

An ally our partners can be honest with

We hold ourselves to a strict ethical charter to ensure our resources remain a protective ally.
Here is what we promise to our partners:

Full Autonomy

While we happily contribute to strategic conversations, our partners retain absolute operational control and complete independence over key decisions.

Safe to Disagree

Partners may freely question our strategic focus, disagree on approaches openly, or decline advice without any threat to support continuity.

No Offloaded Risk

We do not offload public reputational or liability risks onto frontline organisations. We stand in active, public solidarity.

Freedom of Stance

Our resources carry no corporate requirements, forced alignments, or requested political stances.

[ POLICIES & DOCUMENTS ]

Policy library

We maintain an open-access repository of our key governance files, standards, and financial disclosures.

PDF • 54 KB