This new programme will build on the lessons from the pandemic, when we learnt during the London Community Response that collaboration at pace and at scale is possible and indeed necessary - the issues facing London are far too big for any funder, charity or community to tackle alone.
For more than a year we’ve been working with partners to shape the new programme. This process has gathered input from a wide range of members alongside our equity partners to co-design the aims and ambitions for the programme, and importantly the principles which will underpin in.
All of this groundwork has been crucial in creating a shared understanding of the ambitions for the programme. Working together we can…
- build a platform to act collectively on issues that are bigger than any one of us - drawing on the relationships between us and the assets of us all;
- prioritise equity, inclusion and social justice – our shared ‘north star’ - addressing structural inequalities for Londoners for transformational change;
- develop bold, innovative and creative programmes – sharing risks together to learn, unlearn, and achieve more;
- achieve system-wide impact – through civil society, the public sector and business, focusing on solving big problems and delivering impact at scale; and
- deliver both crisis and long-term funding – with strong and collaborative civil society as its legacy.
These are big ambitions, and over the past few months, things have been moving at pace to develop a programme which can put these into practice. We’ve held a series of design workshops with funders, infrastructure groups and civil society representatives to collectively work out more of the detail, hone down on where we believe future investment can have the most impact, and the types of work that will be the priority of the programme.
We are now in the final stages of designing two types of grants, ready to be launched later in the Autumn. We are inviting civil society groups to sign up for one of a series of workshops and webinars in October to find out more about these grants, what sort of work they might fund, and what happens next.
To read more about the programme and application workshops, please read the FAQs below.
Q. What is the programme about?
London Funders have been working with public and independent funders as well as the capital’s equity infrastructure organisations to develop a collaborative funding programme, offering grants to civil society groups in London. The programme is about building long-term funding partnerships, enabling communities who have traditionally struggled to access funding to explore, develop and lead collaborative approaches that tackle some of London’s biggest issues.
Q. Why was it set up?
The pandemic has taught us that it is possible, and necessary, to do funding differently. The London Community Response – coordinated by London Funders – was a ground-breaking funder collaboration bringing together 67 funders to give out over 3,300 grants to support the communities hit hardest by the pandemic. Distributing over £57.7m, the London Community Response was centred on equity and focused on getting support out to communities quickly, prioritising funding to groups led by and for racially minoritised communities, LGBT+ communities, Deaf and Disabled communities and women.
We are now taking the learning from the funder response to the pandemic, along with the insights from London’s equity infrastructure bodies so we can continue to deliver differently for our communities. Starting with a small grant to explore the issue you want to address, or a larger grant if you can build on existing work to deliver and develop a wider partnership for change, the initial grants will lead onto a long-term, extended flexible funding partnership. We want to draw on the strengths and assets of all of us, building collaborations to act together to tackle the issues facing London, from structural inequalities to the cost-of-living crisis. We are particularly looking to support organisations led-by-and-for London’s most marginalised communities.
Find out more below about how you can join us on this journey together.
Q. What does the programme focus on?
The programme will focus on three of London’s Recovery Missions as a springboard for action:
- New Deal for Young People: enabling more disadvantaged young people to benefit from quality mentoring and youth activities and powering systemic change and sustainability within the youth sector
- Robust Safety Net: ensuring every Londoner is able to access the support they need to prevent or alleviate financial hardship and building a strong and sustainable advice sector.
- Building Strong Communities: all Londoners will have access to a community hub ensuring they can volunteer, get support and build strong community networks. A strong civil society will ensure communities have the voice and tools to make London a more equal and inclusive city.
Q. What sort of grants are being developed?
At this stage, three types of grants are being developed for civil society groups in London. Grants will fund activities which relate to one or more of the three Recovery Mission areas above, and we recognise that some grants may cover work that relates to more than one mission.
A) Explore Grants
Explore Grants will be up to one year for organisations to explore what issues they want to tackle, how change might happen and who needs to be involved.
These grants will prioritise equity-led organisations: that is organisations led by and for marginalised communities, in particular:
- Deaf and Disabled communities
- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT+) communities
- Racially minoritised communities
- Women and girls
We define ‘led by’ as when more than 75% of an organisation’s Trustees and more than 50% of staff members (including senior) are people from the communities that you serve/have lived experience of the issues that your organisation is tackling.
It is anticipated up to 20 grants in the region of £50k each will be made.
B) Deliver and Develop Grants
Deliver and Develop Grants will be a grant for up to three years to expand existing delivery, learn about the impact, and build partnerships to scale approaches that work.
Deliver and Develop Grants will be available for civil society organisations who may already be working in collaboration with others to change systems, and who can demonstrate how the principles of equity and justice are at the centre of their approach.
A fixed number of awards has not been set to allow flexibility to award grants based on merit.
C) Long-term Grants
At the end of both Explore Grants and Deliver and Develop Grants, we anticipate that there will be an opportunity to apply for a Long Term Grant (five year+) to lead a collaboration that delivers change for London.
Q. What grants are available now?
We plan to open applications for Explore Grants and Deliver and Develop Grants in October 2022. In October, we will be running workshops and webinars so that you can find out more about these grants and share your initial ideas with funders.
Q. How do I find out more?
Read on to find out more about Explore Grants and to sign up to attend an application workshop.
If you want to find out more about Deliver and Develop Grants, click here.
Q. What sort of activity will be covered by an Explore Grant?
London Funders has been working with partners across the funding and civil society sectors to co-design the programme. Their input has helped to shape the proposed focus for these grants:
An Explore Grant could support organisations to:
- Identify the systemic issue they want to explore. A systemic issue is something which affects the whole ‘system’ rather than just an isolated issue, for example, poverty or racial injustice. The pre-application workshop (see below) is an opportunity to find out what this means in more detail
- Engage with the communities affected by this issue, explore with them what change is possible and design how to deliver and test this change
- Understand who would need to work together to deliver this change
- Develop a proposal for a Deliver and Develop Grant or long-term grant of up to £0.5m per year for a consortium or partnership to take this forward.
Explore Grants are intended to be core grants wherever possible so they could cover a variety of costs. This might include:
- Backfilling of post/s to free up time, or commissioning additional expertise
- Convening to develop ideas
- Payments to partners or communities to participate
- Research and data dives
- Building relationships, partnerships and collaborations
- Organisational capacity building to prepare for the next stage beyond the exploration grant
- Time to engage in learning with funders and others.
Q. Will Explore Grants be focused on work which relates to the Recovery Missions?
The programme is using the three Recovery Missions above as a springboard. This means that it will fund activities which can contribute to the aims of these Missions. The programme recognises that these missions are interlinked and achieving them won’t happen in isolation from tackling other issues.
Don’t worry if you don’t know too much about the Missions - you can find out more and how these could relate to your work and ideas at the application workshops.
Q. What is an application workshop?
We are inviting interested groups to attend an application workshop about the Explore Grants in October to find out more. These workshops are for civil society organisations who are interested in applying for an Explore Grant. There will be an option to attend in person or online. At these workshops, you can:
- Find out more about the grants
- Meet other organisations and think together about the issues that you'd like to focus on
- Meet the funders involved in this programme
- Hear more about the application process
Q. Who can attend the workshops?
The workshops are for civil society groups interested in the fund and whose work fits within the mission areas described above. To attend, participants will be asked to complete a short eligibility check when they register. Organisations that are equity-led (see above) will be prioritised for Explore Grants and we will be working with our equity partners (HEAR Network, Inclusion London, LGBT+ Consortium, The Ubele Initiative and Women's Resource Centre) to reach out to and encourage equity-led groups who attend.
Q. When are they happening?
Workshops will be held on 10th, 12th and 13th October, both half day and evening sessions, with a mix of in person and online. You can register for the the date that suits you best here.
If you cannot attend the Explore Grant workshops, don’t worry. There will be more opportunities to ask questions, share your ideas as well as meet funders once applications are open. Keep up to date with news about the programme by signing up to our newsletter.
Q: When can I find out more about the Deliver and Develop Grants?
Details about the Deliver and Develop Grants have now been published, click here for further information.
Q. Who are London Funders?
London Funders bring funders together to build a better London by taking action on what matters to our city and our communities.
From the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 to the pandemic in 2020, we have also been bringing our members together in times of crisis, ensuring that there has been an effective, coordinated response from funders to support London’s communities.
We’re drawing on the lessons we have learnt from coordinating emergency responses to major events affecting Londoners. We think the way funders have supported London’s communities during the crisis provides a platform for future work which channels long-term resources where they are most needed and achieves the change that is needed for a greener, fairer and safer London.
