NEF review of the year 2025
Highlights from the last 12 months
19 December 2025
It’s hard not to feel the strain of the times we’re living through. The cost of living crisis continues to bite, far-right movements are gaining ground, and the reality of climate breakdown grows starker by the day – meanwhile the capacity and confidence of the institutions designed to address these challenges feel weaker than ever. Most of us feel uncertain about what the future holds.
Although I would radically disagree with him on most things, I often come back to something the godfather of neoliberalism Milton Friedman once wrote: “Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.”
At NEF that has always been our role: to make sure the ideas lying around are the right ones _‑ideas that put people and planet first, and are ready to be picked up when change becomes possible.
Our new strategy sets out the three areas where we are focusing our attention: achieving economic security for all, driving a fast and fair transition to a green economy, and shifting power to people and communities. These goals capture both the urgency of the challenges ahead and the optimism that comes from knowing what can be achieved when people work together.
Across the UK, we’re helping to build power and possibility from the ground up. From community-led pilots in Greater Manchester to regional partnerships reimagining local economies in South Yorkshire, the North East and the West Midlands, our work shows what a fairer economy looks like in practice. NEF is also once again working on the global dimensions of the issues we care about, forging alliances with campaigners, local leaders and thinkers across the world to make sure that fairness and sustainability are at the heart of economic transformation everywhere.
The road ahead will not be easy. But moments of upheaval can also create openings for bold ideas and organised hope. That’s why NEF exists: to develop the alternatives, build the power to deliver them, and ensure that when the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable, we are ready.
To all our funders, partners and supporters — thank you. And a special thanks to the hundreds of individuals and the grantmakers who supported us with valuable unrestricted funding, including the Friends Provident Foundation, Global Fund for a New Economy, John Ellerman Foundation, Guy Lipman, Joyce Pountain, and Quadrature Climate Foundation. Your belief in this work makes everything we do possible. Together, we’re keeping alive the ideas that will build a fairer, greener future.
Danny Sriskandarajah, CEO
