It’s no secret that we love languages at Rubric. After all, we’ve been helping companies connect with their global customers for over 30 years through expertly localized content. But did you know that we’ve channeled our passion into a charity foundation, which is making a cultural impact in our native Scotland?
The Rubric Foundation was set up by Rubric’s founders, Françoise and Ian Henderson, to celebrate and promote the Scots language. By providing grants to cultural and artistic programs, the foundation is helping to protect our heritage and keep the Scots tongue alive and thriving.
Why Scots?
Scots is one of the official languages of Scotland (alongside English, Gaelic, and British Sign Language). It’s known as a language of poetry, storytelling, and song: celebrated Scottish poet Robert Burns, for example, expressed himself in Scots.
Today, the language is widely spoken and understood—even those who don’t consider themselves Scots speakers will recognize words like wee (small), aye (yes), or bairn (child). But while Scots has a strong oral heritage, it’s traditionally been less common to see it in writing. This means there’s a risk the language could eventually die out, breaking a vital link to Scotland’s rich cultural history.
As a business with a deep commitment to sustainability, we want to see languages live and grow. And we want future generations to benefit from a thriving cultural and creative environment. Drawing on our proud Scottish roots (we have colleagues and clients around the world, but Rubric is based in Edinburgh), and our love of words and language, the Rubric Foundation is our way of giving something back to our community.
What does the Rubric Foundation do?
The Rubric Foundation provides grants to fund creative and cultural projects linked to the Scots language. This funding enables individuals and organizations across visual arts, music, poetry, and performance to have their work seen and heard by a broad audience. By investing in these Scots-language activities, events, research programs, and learning opportunities, we’re helping to enrich the cultural landscape and keep Scots alive for generations to come.
Rubric is, essentially, a people business, forging connections across languages and cultures. The Rubric Foundation does the same: music and the arts play a role in bringing people together, sparking conversation, engagement, and emotion. Meanwhile, being curious about our traditions and heritage—and working to preserve them—strengthens links between the generations.
"Rubric enables companies to thrive internationally, the Rubric Foundation ensures that creativity and opportunity flourish locally."
Success stories: Projects supported by the Rubric Foundation
The Rubric Foundation is proud to have enabled a range of work that celebrates and promotes the Scots language, as well as contributing to its preservation and future development.
In a recent example, the Scots Sang an Leid Projeck (Scots song and language project), developed by Scottish singer Amy Lord, brought traditional Scots song to a primary school in Dunblane. Over seven weeks, children at Newton Primary School were taught a range of traditional Scots songs, which extended their Scots vocabulary and deepened their understanding of local history. Pupils showed excellent engagement and participation throughout the project, and loved taking part in a final performance with traditional musicians.
Rubric Foundation funding has supported a range of other cultural projects, including:
- Research into the traditional music of Dumfries and Galloway (southwest Scotland), by Dr Jo Miller
- Mary-Ann’s Summer Holiday: production of a free audiobook featuring a story adapted into Scots, by Scots-language theatre company Braw Clan
- Sponsoring traditional music workshops at Huntly Ceilidh Day, Aberdeenshire
- Hands Up For Trad: celebrating traditional Scottish music at the Scots Trad Music Awards, and part-sponsoring the Wee Grants program to fund grassroots creative work in Scots
It’s a privilege to be able to support such a breadth of initiatives celebrating the Scots language through songs and stories. We’re excited to see traditional culture thriving, and we will continue to lead the way in celebrating and promoting it.
Hands Up for Trad commented on the impact of the Rubric Foundation’s support for Wee Grants—not just in terms of individual projects, but in building the broader engagement needed to secure future funding:
“Following the Rubric Foundation's commitment and the recent passing of the Languages Bill, the Scottish Government expressed interest in providing additional financial support to the programme.”
Your localization partner in every language
Did you know that as well as supporting Scots through our charity foundation, Rubric has hands-on experience of working with the language? In 2021, we collaborated with Scots translators to localize the Mozilla Firefox web browser for the Scots-speaking market, making it the first major software in Scots. Read more here about the unique challenges of this project and how adding “long-tail languages” to your global content could benefit your business.
To learn more about the Rubric Foundation or enquire about funding for a cultural project, visit the Rubric Foundation website (in Scots).