Since its inception in 1990, Stewarts has been actively involved in supporting a variety of charities.

The Stewarts Foundation was set up in 2010 to formalise and manage the firm’s charitable giving.

In 2023 the partners of Stewarts donated £711,000 to the Stewarts Foundation to support its chosen causes.

To date, the Foundation has donated £8.7m to more than 230 charities.

The Foundation’s vision is to:

  • Create opportunities for the disadvantaged in our society
  • Treat people less fortunate than ourselves with compassion and respect
  • Make a substantial social impact

The Foundation supports a small number of charities carefully selected by its Trustees through its grant-giving programme.

 

Turkey-Syria Earthquake

In response to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria the Stewarts Foundation has donated £50,000 to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal. This is an umbrella organisation for a number of charities including the British Red Cross, Action Aid, Save the Children, Oxfam and Care. More details can be found here.

 

Grant giving

The Foundation refocused its grant giving principles in 2016 to include four key areas, all focused on UK charities:

  • Alleviating poverty
  • Enabling access to justice
  • Supporting disability
  • Providing educational opportunity

As part of this, the Foundation committed to donating £1m over four years to the Access to Justice Foundation. This initial commitment ended in 2019 but the Foundation will continue to give to the Access to Justice Foundation for a further 5 years. The grant will be split between their provision of aid for legal advice centres and the cost of a new Access to Justice Centre and Network which will be the go-to centre for all things “Access to Justice” related.

The Daniel Turnbull Memorial Scholarship

The Stewarts Foundation has set up an annual scholarship with The University of Law in memory of the firm’s partner Danny Turnbull who died in 2017. The scholarship will be awarded to an individual who is disabled, as defined under the Equality Act 2010, to undertake the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at any of the University of Law’s campuses.

Danny Turnbull on handcycle

Charities of the Year

Since 2017, Stewarts’ staff have voted for the firm’s Charity of the Year.  We supported Refuge, the UK’s largest provider of specialist support for women and children experiencing domestic abuse and gender-based violence, as our Charity of the Year in 2022. Previous recipients have included Shooting Star Children’s Hospices and Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice, EmmausChicks (now known as Go Beyond) and Ella’s Home and The Snowdrop Project.

Stewarts supports Bliss as Charity of the Year 2024

UK charity Bliss has been selected as Stewarts’ Charity of the Year 2024. Bliss exists to give every baby born premature or sick in the UK the best chance of survival and quality of life.

Sponsorship

The firm encourages participation in fundraising events and sponsors individuals for their efforts. We do not directly match funds, but often the amount donated by the firm exceeds that raised by the individual.