From 14 – 23 May 2024, almost 900 people, representing over 100 funding organisations came together for London Funders’ annual Festival of Learning. The Festival is an opportunity for London Funders’ members to share learning, provide challenge, and be inspired by colleagues and changemakers from across the capital and beyond.
The report brings together some of the highlights from the many hours of incredible discussion and debate from this year's Festival. The full report is available on our website here, but to whet your appetite, here are some of the things we heard this year:
- Challenging what we accept as normal is key when trying to change systems: if we reimagine what a system could look like, then we can start to drive different outcomes and solutions. Once we’ve unearthed and changed the assumptions, biases, and structures that uphold a system, it’s possible to start thinking about the practicalities needed to drive and create a new system.
- Room for improvement: some speakers shared that if there was one thing they could do differently, it would be to bring communities in as early as possible in the participatory process. They recognised that opportunities for communities to participate should have been made right from the start of a funding process, rather than towards the end point where it may be too late to develop priorities and processes in line with what communities would have wanted. This echoes what we heard during our learning focus on participation earlier in 20244 – building in participation at every stage of funding process is key to make people feel valued and ensure a programme is truly shaped by the expertise and experience of the people funders seek to involve.
- No such thing as zero risk: In the absence of clear guidelines about risk – whether this comes from trustees or local authority councillors - there is a danger that funding processes default to risk aversion and create an unspoken intolerance for risk. Being aligned internally is a key starting point to taking more risk. We also heard about the importance of being explicit about risk – when funders’ risk management remains invisible to applicants, they hold on to power and leave potential grantees second guessing how funders view risk.
- Taking a step back: equity-led organisations who contributed to the Festival encouraged funders to move away from thinking about their work in terms of ‘equity targets’ and instead to take a step back and assess what they’re ultimately trying to achieve with their funding. In this process, it’s important to take the time to critically reflect which communities benefit from your funding, which might be absent from your portfolios, and how you can be relational and culturally sensitive in the way you implement equitable practices across all aspects of your funding organisation
- Funders’ convening role: while many of our sessions focussed on collaboration between funders, we were also reminded of the important role funders can play in supporting and resourcing collaboration among their funded partners. Building connections takes time, and rarely has funding attached to it. We heard that funders can support this through coordination and convening grantees to share learning, and providing the resource for building partnerships between themselves.
If you want to dive deeper into the learning Festival contributors & participants shared, we’ve created a Festival of Learning 2024 playlist on our Youtube Channel featuring some of the online sessions that took place, including from Disability Rights UK, Co-op Foundation, Women’s Resource Centre, Institute for Voluntary Action and others.
We'd like to extend our thanks again to everyone who contributed to the Festival of Learning 2024. From London Funders members, to charities and community groups, to campaigners and innovators – thank you for sharing your learning. Your invaluable insights and reflections enables us to shape collaborative action and sector-wide initiatives with funders, so that together, we can build a fairer, safer and greener London.