Using what we’ve already learnt to inform the future
This year, we worked with members and trustees to create a new strategy that will guide our work through to 2030. Throughout this process, we were mindful of how to strike the right balance between long-term ambition and remaining flexible in the face of uncertainty. While it’s near impossible to predict the future, we do know London will likely be hit by more emergencies and hardship again. During conversations about the future, members felt that London Funders has a critical role to play in ensuring that Londoners get the support they need [in those times of crises]. To do that, we knew that building on lessons from previous crisis responses will be critical – in other words, working with members to share intelligence, using data to identify needs, and ensuring we fund London’s communities equitably.
It made sense to use to set out a clear ambition about facilitating and leading collaborative programmes where only working together can achieve the change that is needed.
But we also wanted our strategy to retain a focus on London’s longer-term future. The issues facing the capital are far too big for any one funder, community, or civil society organisation to tackle alone. It therefore made sense to use to set out a clear ambition about facilitating and leading collaborative programmes where only working together can achieve the change that is needed.
Collaborating across sizes and sectors
These are big ambitions, so it is natural that we’ve been exploring how to turn this into reality.
Speaking of collaboration, this year saw the official launch of Propel, a large-scale funder collaboration bringing together funders from across independent, public and corporate sectors. This came out of funders’ commitment to build on the learning from the pandemic by developing bold, innovative and creative programmes rooted in equity, inclusion and social justice.
These are big ambitions, so it is natural that we’ve been exploring how to turn this into reality. We might not have all the answers but the Propel collaboration has given us incredible insights into the challenges and opportunities that come from working together, across sectors and systems, especially when it comes to translating ambition into practical action.
This has involved drawing in people from across the partnership who hold different expertise – be that strategic development, operations or communications. Having core working groups in these three areas has made it possible to translate the ambitions and principles of Propel into a programme and application process that is rooted in being as flexible and equitable as possible.
We could not have done any of this without the involvement of our equity partners, who have been there from the outset to shape, guide and challenge the programme. Working with equity infrastructure organisations like HEAR Network, Inclusion London, LGBT+ Consortium, The Ubele Initiative and Women’s Resource Centre has been key to ensuring we designed a programme that had inclusion and social justice front and centre. Their insights and expertise of London’s diverse communities also informed the application process through user testing and ensured we reached the communities experiencing structural inequality and the civil society groups who are best placed to make change happen.
Learning takes time and resource
Bringing our members together for our annual Festival of Learning reminded us just how important it is to carve out space for learning.
Finally, some lessons about learning itself. Sharing, reflecting and capturing learning about how funders can most effectively support London’s communities takes time and resources, and when times are busy, it can be easy to deprioritise. However, bringing our members together for our annual Festival of Learning reminded us just how important it is to carve out space for learning.
We’ve heard time and again this year how much our members value having an opportunity to take a step back, reflect, and be challenged and inspired by ideas from both within the funding community and by our friends and colleagues in other sectors. As the year draws to a close, we are putting the finishing touches on our new learning strategy, which will give renewed focus on our commitment to creating a strong learning culture, both for us as an organisation and across our membership.
We can’t wait to bring our members back together for our 2023 Festival of Learning, as well as the many other events, networks, and in-person spaces we’re busy planning. We hope you’ll join us in building a strong learning culture across London’s funding community, where shared data, intelligence, and insight help us all create a fairer, greener, more equitable London.
