About Us

The McDougall Trust (registered with the Charity Commission as The Arthur McDougall Fund - Registration no 212151) formed in 1948. Its name derives from a member of the flour milling family, Sir Robert McDougall, who provided the initial capital gift.

The value of the Trust’s assets is now just over £500,000. The Trustees are able to make a modest number of grants from income for appropriate projects within the Trust's objects each year. The Trustees are pleased to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of the Trust and they will continue to review the impact that it has made with its funding to ensure that money continues to be applied effectively.

The Trust’s purposes are to advance knowledge of and encourage the study of and research into:

• Political or economic science and functions of government and the services provided to the community by public and voluntary organisations.
• Methods of election of and the selection and government of representative organisations whether national, civic, commercial, industrial or social.

The Trust’s work includes:

• The maintenance and development of the Lakeman Library for Electoral Studies, a unique resource for politicians, reformers, researchers and students.
• In association with Taylor & Francis, the production and publication of Representation: The Journal of Representative Democracy (ISSN 0034-4893).
• Publishing Voting Matters, an occasional journal on the technicalities of electoral systems and preferential voting systems in particular.
• Making a small number of discretionary grants each year in support of projects in electoral studies and related areas of political science.
• Collaborating with the Electoral Reform Society and other organisations on areas of common interest including public education on electoral systems.