The Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation, more commonly known as the Pilkington Foundation, is a British grantmaking foundation. While the group’s ostensible purpose is to promote British culture in Japan and Japanese culture in Great Britain, it was one of the founding sponsors of the now-defunct religious-targeted environmentalist group Alliance of Religions and Conservation. ^{1 2}

As of December 2023, the group may be inactive. According to financial reports filed with the British government, the group has not reported spending any money since April 2021. ³

Background

Brian Pilkington founded the Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation in 1988 and remains its sole trustee as of December 2023. In 1992, he organized the exhibition of the private art collection of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and spouse of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, for the MOA Museum Atami in Japan. Also in that year, he published a catalog of Prince Philip’s art collection of wildlife titled Images of Nature to promote wildlife conservation. In 1993, he founded Pilkington Press which specialized in publications on philosophy and culture. ⁴

Founding

Between April 29 and May 4, 1995, the Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation co-sponsored a summit of religious figures with the World Wide Fund for Nature, known as the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in the United States, and the Japanese humanitarian foundation MOA International at Windsor Palace in London, United Kingdom. Prince Philip, then the international president of the WWF, hosted the summit. The International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture organized the summit on behalf of the sponsors. ⁵

The summit was a follow up to a meeting of religious figures in Assisi, Italy in 1986 where they formed the Network on Conservation and Religion. At the Assisi meeting, representatives from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam pledged to work within their own communities to push environmental activism. In 1987, representatives of the Baha’i faith became members and in 1988, Sikh and Jain members joined. ⁶

At a pre-Windsor Summit meeting in April 1995 in Atami, Japan, the participating religions drew up plans that were ratified at the Windsor Summit. ⁷

At the Windsor Palace Summit in 1995, the Taoists joined the network and the network became the more formal Alliance of Religions and Conservation. ⁸

Leadership

The Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation selected some of the trustees of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation since it was one of the founding sponsors of the group. ⁹ In 1996, Brian Pilkington was selected as the chair of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation board of trustees; he would remain chair until the group was dissolved. ¹⁰

Faith-Based Investing

In 2016, the Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation supported a report commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development written by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation called Faith and Finance: Faith-Consistent Investing and the Sustainable Development Goals. The report argued investments from religious institutions could support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. ¹¹

The report encouraged coordination between religious and secular officials to steer money from institutional religious funds to support weather-dependent sources of energy such as wind and solar, organic agriculture, electric vehicles, and other environmentalist-supported projects. ¹²

Status

As of December 2023, the Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation appears to be defunct. The group’s website is no longer active, and its last report submitted to the Charity Commission for England and Wales showed no money in its account as of April 2022 with its last reported expenditure in April 2021. ¹³

1. “The Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation .” Charity Commission for England and Wales. Accessed December 3, 2023. https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/327722/charity-overview.
2. “The Organisation of Arc.” ARC. Accessed December 3, 2023. http://www.arcworld.org/aboutb087.html?pageID=3.
3. “The Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation .” Charity Commission for England and Wales. Accessed December 3, 2023. https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/327722/financial-history.
4. “Biographies – Alliance of Religions and Conservation.” Alliance of Religions and Conservation. Accessed December 4, 2023. http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/Biographies-for-Zug-meeting-2017.pdf.
5. “Religions Vow a New Alliance for Conservation .” One Country. Accessed December 4, 2023. https://www.onecountry.org/story/religions-vow-new-alliance-conservation.
6. “Religions Vow a New Alliance for Conservation .” One Country. Accessed December 4, 2023. https://www.onecountry.org/story/religions-vow-new-alliance-conservation.
7. “Religions Vow a New Alliance for Conservation .” One Country. Accessed December 4, 2023. https://www.onecountry.org/story/religions-vow-new-alliance-conservation.
8.  “Religions Vow a New Alliance for Conservation .” One Country. Accessed December 4, 2023. https://www.onecountry.org/story/religions-vow-new-alliance-conservation.
9. “The Organisation of Arc.” ARC. Accessed December 3, 2023. http://www.arcworld.org/aboutb087.html?pageID=3.
10. “Biographies – Alliance of Religions and Conservation.” Alliance of Religions and Conservation. Accessed December 4, 2023. http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/Biographies-for-Zug-meeting-2017.pdf.
11. “Faith In Finance.” JLI, 2016. https://jliflc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Faith-in-Finance-Discussion-Paper.pdf.
12. “Faith In Finance.” JLI, 2016. https://jliflc.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Faith-in-Finance-Discussion-Paper.pdf.
13. “The Pilkington Anglo-Japanese Cultural Foundation .” Charity Commission for England and Wales. Accessed December 3, 2023. https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/327722/financial-history.