Steven Burkeman is an independent consultant working with foundations and others interested in philanthropy.
For 19 years, until 2001, Mr. Burkeman led the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) as its Trust Secretary. The JRCT is one of the UK’s older trusts with a tradition of radical grant making in fields such as peace and international relations, and racial justice. Before then, he worked for many years as a teacher, in the nonprofit sector, in local government, and as a consumer advocate in the National Health Service.
Mr. Burkeman has written and lectured widely in the UK and internationally on issues relating to grant making. He serves on the board of Allavida, and is a member of the Law Society’s Consumer Complaints Board, responsible for running the service dealing with consumer complaints against lawyers. He also served on the board of the Community Fund, the UK’s largest generalist donor, responsible for spending some income from the UK’s National Lottery targeted at people at greatest disadvantage.
Mr. Burkeman keeps a blog about social justice philanthropy at givingforachange.blogspot.com/. He holds academic qualifications in law, education, and public sector policy. Mr. Burkeman’s work as an independent consultant has included work with Atlantic Philanthropies, the Bridge House Trust, City Parochial Foundation, Northern Rock Foundation, Millfield House Foundation and the Scottish Community Foundation. He has undertaken mapping studies, organizational reviews, customer satisfaction studies, evaluation, monitoring, and meeting facilitation.