The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation came into being in August 2003 as a result of a merger between The Maurice Laing Foundation, founded by Sir Maurice Laing in June 1972 and The Rufford Foundation founded in June 1982 by John Hedley Laing.
An 'Inheritor of the Planet' - the Foundation supports WWF's Private Reserves Network programme.
The Rufford Maurice Laing Foundation is a private grant-making trust. We are a member of the Association of Charitable Foundations and our charity registration number is 326163.
The Trustees’ grant-making priorities remained unchanged in 2006/07. Once again it was possible to identify four main areas of giving: 72% to support nature conservation, the environment and sustainable development projects in non first world countries (62% in 2006) 16% to support health and medicine - primarily HIV/AIDS projects in the developing world but some funding for the scientific research into efficacy of complementary health treatments and their integration into general medicine (18% in 2006) 6% to support social welfare initiatives in the UK (9% in 2006) 6% to support sustainable development work to relieve poverty overseas (11% in 2006)Should you be considering making an application to the Foundation under any of these headings, please first of all review the relevant areas of the site and in particular the section 'How to Apply'.