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Our panel talked about how funders can help meet the immediate costs and needs created by the damage and violence of the past few weeks, and welcomed the solidarity already shown by so many of you. They also urged us to think about how funding can support the longer-term work needed to build trust, challenge hostile environments and narratives, and deal with the structural and systemic nature of these issues. As part of this we know that we need to stand with communities as they advocate, organise and lead, supported by the social infrastructure that amplifies, enables and champions change.
Since the session we’ve heard more about what some of our members are doing in terms of practical steps to make this happen. Please continue to share your thoughts and plans with us, as it’s incredibly useful to both inform and align action across the funding community.
- Emergency funding:
- Some funders, in London and nationally, have contacted existing grantees to offer additional funding. For example, a regional funder has opened a £50k discretionary fund for emergency provision, relocating services and safety measures – which was heavily oversubscribed
- We’ve also seen funders coming together through the Civic Power Fund to provide microgrants of around £1,000 to groups affected with whom they already partner, or who have been referred by partners
- Our member Lloyds Bank Foundation has written about their decision to offer unrestricted grants of £2,500 to some of their charity partners led by and for racially minoritised communities and those that support migrants
- Increased flexibility – many funders have been contacting funded groups who may have been affected to enable flexibility in how existing funding is used or to release grants early (do check out IVAR’s Open and Trusting pages for more ideas on flexible funding)
- Advocacy/policy responses:
- We’ve heard some of our members supporting policy engagement, community organising and education – for example via Hope not Hate
- There are also additional sessions being convened for funders on how to counter online hate and misinformation and protect civil liberties online. We’ll share these with members through our newsletters
- Supporting staff internally:
- We’ve heard examples of funders working internally to identify ways they can support colleagues who have been hurt or traumatised by what has happened. This is both about using existing flexibilities well, but also identifying additional support that may be needed. This has included things like more flexible working, temporary office closures, and access to counselling
A strong message to come out of the session last week as well as the ongoing conversations we’re part of is that this needs more than an immediate response. We’re aware of work underway by several collaborations and organisations looking at longer term action within their areas of focus, including Social Justice Funders network in the advice sector, Children in Need around young people, as well as Funders for Race Equality Alliance and the Migration Exchange – and have shared links to these with members. We’re continuing to support some of these conversations and will continue to explore the role London Funders can play in these as they develop.
So, if you’ve put changes in place, are thinking about how you can support longer term work in this area, or want to explore how you might collaborate with others to pool resources and expertise to support this, please reach out to continue the conversation and help make change happen.
