As a member of London Funders, you’ll know that at the heart of our mission is bringing together funders from the independent, public and private sectors to create positive change for our communities. Today’s challenges are too big for any one organisation or funder to tackle alone – which is why we’ve always been committed to combining our collective resources, insight and influence to drive lasting impact.
Over recent years, this ambition has led us to seize new opportunities, whether convening funders to collaborate through the London Community Response during the covid-19 pandemic, or building on that legacy of cross-sector collaboration through the long-term funding programme, Propel. Our subsidiary for pooling funds, the Collaboration Circle, and our work with the growing Place-Based Giving network is seeing us extend our relevance and impact outside London. We’re privileged to have such a strong membership network alongside us – testing ideas, offering challenge, and learning together as we take collective action on what matters most to our communities.
Delivering this work has shown us how important it is to have the infrastructure in place to enable us to deliver on our ambitions for London while remaining agile and sustainable in a fast-moving landscape. Over the past few months our Board has been exploring a governance framework which will provide this in the future.
From this process, the London Funders Board are proposing two changes to our governing document. We believe these changes will give us a more flexible framework for our existing work, enable us to be more efficient as an organisation, and all while making it easier to collaborate with partners who share our vision for a strong, connected and collaborative funding sector.
The two proposed changes are to:
- Remove the restriction that limits us to operate only in London
By lifting the limit to our geographic remit, we believe we can strengthen London’s funding ecosystem through wider collaboration and shared insight.
This change will enable us to bring Collaboration Circle and our growing Place Based Giving Resource Hub into our governance ‘family’. It will enable us to work with funders, networks and partners who share our vision for strong communities but are based elsewhere, and means we can more easily apply what we’ve learned from London’s collaborations to influence and help implement work across the UK – and bring that learning back to our members.
2. Change our registered charity and company name to Funders Together.
The above change means London Funders isn’t right as the overarching name, but we’ll continue to use it as our trading name. We’ve chosen Funders Together for legal registration and this will act as the registered name under which now not only London Funders will sit but also the Collaboration Circle, and the Place Based Giving Resource Hub. This name reinforces our commitment to collective action alongside partners who share our ambition for a collaborative funding sector which can make the most difference for communities.
The name London Funders isn't going anywhere. Our deep commitment to a greener, safer and more equitable London will also remain unchanged. What will change is our ability to collaborate even more effectively, attract new partnerships and opportunities, and ensure that our members benefit from a richer network of learning, influence and investment. In practice, this change is about expanding the circle – not shifting our focus.
As a member of London Funders, you will receive the same benefits as before and your day-to-day interaction with the team will look the same. Our London based networks, events and learning programmes will continue, as will our involvement in pan-London and local borough partnerships.
As well as bringing opportunities, these changes avoid complicating our governance so that we can be more efficient. London Funders can continue to operate as it does now, but any of our work that could or should be working in London and beyond can sit alongside us in the Funders Together structure, rather than requiring additional legal entities. This will help us to be more efficient and agile, which for a small organisation like ours is crucial. We're very grateful to the whole Board of Trustees for the time they’ve put into exploring what future framework will be in the best interest of the charity, and ensuring we are now in a position to confidently recommend this change to you.
We hope you will support these amendments and help strengthen our infrastructure at a time when we know civil society needs a strong funding community more than ever. We are inviting members to vote on the changes at a General Meeting, which will immediately follow our learning meeting on 4 November. A formal notice about the General Meeting has been sent to members who are eligible to vote, with information about how to vote or appoint a proxy.
Between now and November we are keen to answer any questions you might have or talk through the changes in more detail. Please email faye.downey@londonfunders.org.uk so we can arrange this. In the meantime, thank you again for your continued engagement in our cross-sector membership. We truly believe we can be stronger when we work together, and we look forward to doing more of this in the years to come.
* This text was sent in an email to all members who are eligible to vote under the terms of their membership. If you are unclear about your membership type, please email Nasyah.Bandoh@londonfunders.org.uk
To see the proposed Articles of Association you can download here.