Clifford Chance
Clifford Chance is proud to launch our United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) Award 2025 recognising and supporting outstanding contribution to the UN SDGs.
This year's Award will focus on NGOs whose work contributes towards:
- SDG: 11 Sustainable communities and cities
- SDG:13 Climate action
- SDG: 14 Life below water
- SDG: 15 Life on land
The winning organisation will receive a £50,000 donation from the Clifford Chance Foundation and 500 hours of pro bono legal – a package designed to help scale their impact and accelerate progress towards a more just world.
We welcome applications from NGOs globally, especially those:
- who are adopting innovative strategies in relation to the achievement of the environment-related SDGs.
- for whom winning would have the potential to help them significantly scale their work or in other ways transform their organisation.
All entries will be assessed equally, regardless of geography or prior engagement with Clifford Chance.
Key dates:
- Monday 30 June 2025: Application open – application form can be found here
- Friday 8 August 2025: Applications close
- October 2025: Winner announced
The judging panel will be led by Senior Partner Adrian Cartwright, alongside members of our Responsible Business Board, strategic pro bono partners, and select client representatives.
Capture the judges’ attention by highlighting in your application:
- Tangible impact – how many people you’ve helped, where, and what changed as a result
- Deep understanding of the issues – illustrate your connection to the problem, why it matters to you
- Scalability and growth – share your vision for the future, how you plan to grow, who you will involve and what support you need
About the 2024 winner
Clifford Chance has named not for profit organisation BarefootLaw as the winner of its United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) award 2024. BarefootLaw's work involves leveraging digital technology and legal expertise to promote accessible, inclusive, and effective access to justice, particularly among underserved and marginalized communities in Africa.
About the 2023 winner
Clifford Chance has named not for profit employment organisation Alive and Kicking as the 2023. Alive and Kicking's core operation is the production of ethically and sustainably made sports balls to help adults in vulnerable job groups, including refugees, by creating employment opportunities across sub-Saharan Africa.
About the 2022 winner
Clifford Chance has named humanitarian, digital connectivity charity Jangala as the winner of its United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) award. Jangala is a British charity which works internationally with grassroots and large aid and development organisations to enable internet access for people in need of urgent aid or longer-term development assistance across the humanitarian crisis, education, healthcare and refugee fields.
About the 2021 winner
Clifford Chance named environmental protection charity and voluntary carbon standard, Plan Vivo as the winner of its first ever Sustainable Development Goal award, developed with the objective of supporting non-governmental organisations (NGOs) whose work contributes to the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Plan Vivo, based in Scotland received a £50,000 donation and 500 hours of pro bono support over an 18-month period to support the next stage of its growth, in particular, its ability to measure and evaluate impact and better incorporate the inclusion of marginalised groups at the project design stage.
