The Ronald Duncan Literary Foundation (RDLF) was a charitable trust that existed to promote the work and achievements of Ronald Duncan. It encouraged creative excellence and advanced causes the Trustees deemed to be of value, particularly in the fields of writing, poetry and performance. 

In 2018, the trust was wound down after forty years of activity having committed its remaining funds to two major projects to ensure the ongoing legacy of Ronald Duncan and to continue supporting the arts.

The first of these projects supports the literary programme of new writers and plays at Bristol Old Vic through a substantial grant spread over four years, with a view to creating a long-term legacy for Britain's oldest continuously working theatre. The funding provides a range of opportunities for new writers and poets, including access to mentoring, dramaturgical expertise, performance platforms and seed support for scripts in development. The programme also supports the South West regional playwriting competition, The Open Session, through the Ronald Duncan Prize.

Secondly, the RDLF made a large bequest to the University of Exeter in order to sustain its South West writing collections, to fund a digitisation project to secure accessibility of archival resources, and to support research into these collections - all with the wider  aim of preserving and sharing Ronald Duncan's legacy. The funding also supported an 18-month project to catalogue, preserve and research the Ronald Duncan Collection, which was gifted to University of Exeter Special Collections by the RDLF in 2012.