Private companies play a role in all our lives. However, when corporate power causes harm – whether through business as usual or wrongdoing – the impact is significant for the general public, but much more so for groups that already experience disadvantage and discrimination, such as people in prison, migrants and people in care.
The combination of powerful and influential companies, under-resourced regulators, rapidly changing technology, and limited access to justice for ordinary people means that there are troubling gaps in accountability.
There are a number of civil society organisations boldly seeking to hold corporate power to account on behalf of individuals and communities, but the sector is small and under-resourced in comparison to the problems it wants to tackle.
The Baring Foundation has chosen to focus on supporting the use of the law to address corporate harm, having seen over more than a decade how legal action of different kinds can provide civil society with the means to tackle directly the discrimination and disadvantage experienced by many different groups.
You can find more about our previous work (2015-2025) here.
For current funding opportunities, please see here.
