What are some of the key categories/areas you fund?
We’re an educational funder serving young people in inner London. We recently updated our funding themes to ensure our support remains responsive to the evolving challenges facing young Londoners. These include:
- Missing Out: Improving the outcome of young people at risk of missing out on education and supporting them before they fall behind
- Next Steps: Giving young people the necessary opportunities and learning to reach their career potential especially through alternatives to traditional educational pathways
- Scholarships and Bursaries: Removing financial barriers for young people to reach their potential so that talent and hard work determine a young person’s future, not financial circumstances
- New ideas: Supporting bold and innovative early-stage work that explores new ways of teaching, learning and supporting young people as well as improving how education is delivered
- Stepping up: Promoting personal development and building young people’s soft skills to help them navigate adult life and contribute positively to society
- Portal Networks: Inviting other organisations to work with us to strengthen opportunities for young people in our network’s institutions
What’s something exciting/innovative that you’re currently working on?
We’ve funded important research into London’s educational needs for many years, and we’re now starting out on a project to produce our first Research Strategy, which is an important step in developing how we understand and tackle the barriers facing young Londoners.
London’s educational and socioeconomic landscape is constantly changing. By taking a strategic approach to our research, we’re ensuring that every study we commission has a clear purpose with a focus on meaningful, practical outcomes. We want our findings to directly inform our future funding decisions and provide actionable insights for the educators and organisations working with young people across the 14 boroughs that we serve.
Ultimately, we want to move beyond simply identifying challenges and start providing the evidence needed to help drive long-term, systemic change for London’s young people.
What’s one piece of learning/insight that you’d like to share with other London Funders’ members?
We recently collaborated with King’s College London on a truly insightful research project, which examined the educational experiences of Mixed-heritage young Londoners.
While Mixed-heritage students are a rapidly growing cohort in London’s schools and universities, the researchers found they often feel alone when facing incredibly complex issues of identity, prejudice and belonging.
Many participants described feeling hyper visible to their peers, but invisible to educational systems that don’t recognise their specific needs and concerns.
As a result, we’re now working with researchers at KCL to develop a dedicated toolkit to give schools practical guidance on how to recognise and respond to the unique challenges Mixed-heritage students face.
What do you value most about being a part of London Funders?
Being part of London Funders gives us the opportunity to learn from other organisations’ successes and share our own insights to help improve support for young people across the capital.
We really value the chance to step out of our own bubble and look at the challenges facing London as a whole. It’s great to have a shared space where we can exchange ideas and reflect on how our work fits in with what others are doing. We appreciate being part of a community that stays on top of how things are changing across the city, as it helps us be much more effective with our own support.
Looking ahead, share one thing that is on your radar. What should we prioritise as a network of funders?
A big priority for us is support for the young people most at risk of falling through the cracks of our education system. Our new funding theme, Missing Out, focuses on those facing significant barriers: from school exclusion and mental health challenges to experience with the justice system or homelessness. Many young people with the most complex needs find themselves in situations – such as alternative provision - where support can be the most inconsistent.
We’ve seen amazing results when we partner with programmes that help young people re-engage with learning and discover their true potential.
What’s an issue or area you’d like to discuss with other members?
As we start applying our new funding priorities, we’re really keen to talk about how we can broaden access to our grants. We specifically want to reach more organisations that are led by, or serving, minoritised and marginalised groups.
We’d love to hear from other funders about the strategies they’ve found successful for making their processes more accessible and building trust with groups who might not have applied to them before.
Connect with us about:
- London’s emerging educational needs and opportunities
- Research strategies, including translating research to advocacy
- Outdoor education
- Vocational and skills-based education
- Measuring impact
The Member Spotlight is taken from our monthly member-exclusive newsletter, the Member Memo. The newsletter contains targeted information about upcoming events and updates from across the membership, with opportunities to connect and collaborate with other members. If you are a London Funders' member and would like to sign up, please email [email protected].