The imposing offices of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are in downtown Seattle, just opposite the city’s famous Space Needle. It was here in the spring of 2015 that Paul Ramsay Foundation chief executive Simon Freeman, together with directors Michael Siddle and Peter Evans, began a tour of some of America’s leading philanthropic foundations. With a bucket list that included the Ford Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, they were keen to see how the big US foundations operate and are resourced.

“What we took from that trip was a real understanding of what it actually means to be an engaged funder,” says Freeman, who criss-crossed the US to visit 10 foundations over the same number of days.