Endings are part of the work of making other futures possible.
Why we exist.
In a world addicted to growth and permanence, the courage to close—to hospice, to dismantle, to reconfigure —is a radical act of love.
And to do this with intention and care, when so much is unravelling, is one of the most generative things we can do - freeing up energy, resources, and imagination to make room for what’s truly needed now.
Seeded in 2018, Stewarding Loss has supported people - relationally, strategically and structurally-with their closures and reconfigurations across a range of contexts - primarily within civil society organisations and philanthropic institutions and programmes.
To access tools, resources and insights from our work and others in the field, visit this page.
When we began this work more formally in 2019, the field of organisational endings in the UK was still largely unspoken and unattended—shaped by cultural discomfort with loss, limited resourcing, and a tendency to equate closure with failure.
Since then, Stewarding Loss has played a catalytic role in naming and nourishing this field—helping to shift how endings are understood, resourced, and held.
Over time, a number of tributaries have flowed from this work: new language, tools, practices, and collaborations that continue to ripple outward into wider ecosystems of change.
Stewarding Loss is also part of a longer arc of people and practice that we wanted to acknowledge - and these come just from our vantage point in the field.
In 2008 Vanessa Reid published work in Ascent Magazine about her experience of bringing Conscious Closure to an organisation. In 2015 this became a TEDX talk.
In 2013 Laura Bunt and Charlie Leadbetter published a piece of work on the Art of Exit - focussed on the decommissioning of public services.
In 2017 Joe Macleod started And Ends, working on endings in services and business. He has since gone on to publish two books.
In 2018 Cassie wrote her first provocation - How do we help organisations to die? Focussed on organisations in UK civil society. And in 2019 Stewarding Loss was created with an Ideas + Pioneers grant from Paul Hamlyn Foundation.
In 2021 Vanessa Andreotti and the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futues Collective published their now infamous book, Hospicing Modernity.
In 2022 Lizzie and Alison, now authors of the book Good Bye, came onto the radar of Stewarding Loss - they were offering coaching specifically around endings for leaders.
In 2023 Iona Lawrence and Louise Armstrong, spun out the Decelerator from Stewarding Loss, where Iona had been prototyping her idea for an Endings Hotline.
In 2023 Camille E. Acey, based in the US, began The Wind Down, offering services and support in relation to closures. Towards the end of 2023 she also took over running the Community of Practice - originally set up by Stewarding Loss.
In 2024 Ally Kingston, as part of the Collective Imagination Practice Community, hosted a Death & the Collective Imagination Huddle. In 2025 this then led to the design and publication of the Tendings to Endings cards. All of this was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation,
In 2024 Solvable set up the Department of Dismantling through which several initiatives are now being created.
And in 2024, Stanford Social Innovation Review published stories from different people in this field.
Over the years we have also been in relationship with a number of people who offer practice and wisdom in this space - Francis Weller, Stephen Jenkinson, Malkia Devich-Cyril, Camille Sapara Barton, Sophy Banks, Jake Garber, Ivor Williams and Alexandra Blakely.
“This is structural, if things ended well, civil society would be healthier overall.”
An interviewee as part of our research in 2020