Covid-19 Response - London Funders receives Charity Award

The award was given to the London Funders team in recognition of the work that the organisation has done to coordinate the London Community Response, to spearhead the ‘We Stand with the Sector’ statement, and to share best practice, intelligence and insights with funders since the pandemic began in March 2020. 

What we did

There was no blueprint of how our members and the wider funding sector should operate, and over the past fifteen months London Funders has stepped up to provide invaluable guidance, leadership and a vehicle for practical collaboration for grant-givers, social investors and commissioners as they navigated this once-in-a-lifetime event.

London Funders has also worked with equity partners and friends across the sector to promote inclusive funding approaches, acknowledging that the pandemic is disproportionately affecting already marginalised and discriminated-against communities.

Accepting the award on behalf of the London Funders team, James Banks (Chief Executive) said:

2020-21 has been a landmark year for London Funders. As well as talking with our members, and listening to our local friends and colleagues, we have been sharing our learning with colleagues across the country (and world). We’ve (virtually) connected with funders in every corner and nation in the UK – from Edinburgh to Essex - and have presented on what we have achieved in London to as far away as the USA, Singapore and New Zealand. We also helped to adapt the London Community Response model so that it could become the foundation of the national Community Justice Fund and the Social Enterprise Support Fund.

It’s been a pleasure and privilege to engage with our members, and we’ve seen first hand how dedicated they have been in supporting the communities they serve. And we’re just getting started!

Looking specifically at funding practice, we are working with grant-givers and our friends at IVAR to highlight how the 'We Stand with the Sector' statement has been used practically since March 2020. Building on this, we have been championing the #FlexibleFunders campaign to ensure that change ‘sticks’ so that the commitments become standard practice across the sector, and that funders have the tools to collaborate more outside of a crisis.

Learning reports

We’ve also released four reports based on learning from the London Community Response so far (and one on funding ‘After the Storm’), have hosted hundreds of events and meetings for our members, and have curated a ‘Covid Resource Hub’ for funders. In addition, we will soon be publishing a write-up of all of the sessions that took place at May’s Festival of Learning, and are looking forward to meeting our members at Al-Fresco action learning sets over the summer.

Reflecting on what we have achieved, James Banks said:

Looking ahead

Looking ahead – in our 25th anniversary year – we will bring together even more learning as a platform for continued collaboration between funders to tackle the issues facing our communities so that every Londoner can thrive.