1. As a place-based giving scheme, what are some of the key categories/areas you fund? And how do you support local civil society and community organisations?
At Camden Giving we work to tackle inequality in the London Borough of Camden by investing in community power and supporting grassroots organisations and resident-led initiatives. Our work focuses on issues including youth opportunity, food insecurity, wellbeing, and strengthening community connections.
Our flagship fund brings this approach to life. The Equality Fund provides unrestricted funding to organisations working to address structural inequalities affecting people experiencing racism and/or disability discrimination in Camden. A key part of the fund is that decisions about where the funding goes are made by panels of residents with lived experience of these issues, helping ensure funding reaches communities most affected by inequality.
Alongside this, we deliver the We Make Camden Kit, which provides small grants to residents, community groups and schools to bring local ideas to life. The fund supports projects that contribute to Camden’s four long-term missions: ensuring young people have access to economic opportunities; making sure everyone can eat well every day with nutritious and affordable food; increasing diversity among those in positions of power; and creating healthy, sustainable estates and neighbourhoods across the borough.
Across all of our funding, a core principle is shifting decision-making closer to communities.
2. What’s something exciting that you’re currently developing?
We're currently exploring new ways to make participatory grantmaking more accessible, transparent and scalable, while keeping communities at the heart of decision-making.
One area we're particularly excited about is our growing work with schools, bringing participatory grantmaking directly to young people across Camden. Rather than expecting communities to come to us, we've been taking funding decision-making directly into classrooms and youth clubs, where young people learn about local issues, review applications and collectively decide how funding from the We Make Camden Kit should be distributed. Since September 2025, we've run decision-making panels with 116 young people in schools and youth settings across the borough.
The response from young people has been incredibly positive. Participants have told us that the experience has helped them better understand both their community and the funding sector. One young person said it had "allowed me to know more about different charities and what they do locally", while another reflected that they had "become more aware of how most charities run and how funding decisions are made".
For us, this demonstrates the wider value of school-based grantmaking: young people are not only influencing where funding goes, they are gaining insight into local opportunities, civic participation and career pathways that often remain invisible to them.
Alongside this, we've developed Elevate, a community-owned participatory grantmaking platform co-designed with Camden Giving panellists. Elevate enables panellists to vote, comment on and prioritise applications, while giving facilitators real-time insight into decision-making patterns, consensus-building and equity. Features such as abstentions for conflicts of interest, custom equity tags and live commenting help support fairer and more transparent decision-making.
The platform is already being used beyond Camden by Barking and Dagenham Giving and Brent Giving, helping to spread learning and strengthen participatory grantmaking across London.
3. What’s one piece of learning that you’d like to share with funders?
One of the biggest lessons from our work is that communities take funding decisions incredibly seriously.
Whether we're working with residents through the Equality Fund or young people through our school-based grantmaking, we've consistently seen panellists approach decisions with thoughtfulness, care and a strong sense of responsibility. They ask difficult questions and work hard to ensure funding reaches those who need it most.
We think part of the reason for this is that these decisions are not abstract. Our panellists view Camden as their home, the issues being discussed in applications affect their lives, their families, their neighbours and the communities they identify with. When funding decisions have a direct impact on places and people they care about, panellists often hold applications to a very high standard and can be some of the most rigorous critics in the room.
For us, the key learning is that communities don't just deserve a seat at the table because it's fairer; they make funding decisions stronger because they bring a depth of local knowledge, investment and accountability that can't be found elsewhere.
When people are trusted with real responsibility, they bring insights, perspectives and accountability that traditional funding processes can struggle to replicate.
4. What do you value most about being a part of London Funders?
Being part of London Funders offers a valuable space to connect, learn and collaborate with other organisations supporting communities across the capital. I particularly value the networks and forums that London Funders convenes. The Children and Young People Network is a great space to connect with others working in this area, hear about emerging issues affecting young Londoners and learn from the approaches other funders are taking.
At a local level, the Camden Funder Forum has also been incredibly useful for connecting with other organisations funding in the borough. It provides space to share insight about local priorities, understand where there may be overlaps or gaps in funding, and explore opportunities to collaborate.
5. Looking ahead, share one thing that is on your radar. What should we prioritise as a network of funders?
One thing that is increasingly on our radar is the pressure facing grassroots organisations and the people behind them. As funders, it's worth asking whether our processes genuinely support the organisations we fund, or whether they unintentionally add to the burden.
At Camden Giving, we've been experimenting with ways to build more trusting and human-centred funding relationships. One example is our wellbeing grants, which provide a 10% top-up to our larger grants that can only be used to support staff wellbeing. These grants are non-competitive and available to all successful applicants. We deliberately avoid asking organisations to prove they are struggling, compete against one another, or justify why their wellbeing needs are greater than someone else's. Instead, we trust organisations to determine what support will be most valuable for their teams.
We've also moved towards more relational approaches to reporting through informal "Coffee and Chats". Rather than requiring written reports, previous community panellists meet with funded organisations and write short reflections on the conversation. This removes the burden of formal reporting and creates space for honest discussion about what has worked, what has been challenging and what has been learned. Importantly, organisations are reflecting with members of the community rather than reporting back to someone in a formal funder role.
For us, both approaches reflect a broader belief that funding should be built on trust, relationships and learning. As a network of funders, we have an opportunity to keep challenging sector norms and designing funding in ways that better support both organisations and the people who sustain them.
6. What’s an issue or area you’d like to discuss with other members?
We're always keen to connect with funders interested in reaching communities in Camden more effectively. As a place-based funder, we see real opportunities for collaboration with organisations looking to distribute funding locally, whether through collaborative funds, onward granting arrangements or signposting. We bring strong local networks, trusted community relationships and insight from residents themselves, which ensures funding reaches organisations and communities that might otherwise be overlooked.
We would also welcome conversations with funders interested in participatory grantmaking. Over the past few years, we've supported a range of funders to design and deliver participatory approaches, including Youth Futures Foundation, BBC Children in Need, Big Local Trust and Energise Me. This has included everything from training and facilitation to designing and running collaborative participatory decision-making processes. As interest in community-led and place-based funding continues to grow, we'd love to connect with organisations looking to learn from, collaborate on or commission this work.
7. Connect with us about:
- Participatory and community-led grantmaking
- Designing and delivering participatory funding programmes
- School-based grantmaking and engaging young people in funding decisions
- Elevate, our community-owned participatory grantmaking platform
- Place-based philanthropy and local giving models
- Distributing funding through local partnerships and onward granting
- Designing funding processes that reduce burden and support learning
To connect with Camden Giving, please email [email protected].
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].