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Why participation and why now?
As we head into a year of local, regional and a likely national elections, participation is high on the agenda.
Our learning programme in the last year has focused on bringing together insights, ideas and reflections about what it takes to work in greater solidarity with those we fund – whether that is by addressing the power dynamics inherent in the funding system or thinking differently about how we view and manage risk.
All of this learning has happened in a context where people’s trust in institutions and those in power are at an all-time low while demands are growing from communities to have a say in the decisions that affect them.
For us, learning is about using the insights we gather from our work with funders and civil society to take action on what matters to our city and communities. Alongside a number of new initiatives we're launching this year (including a new Resource Hub on placed-based giving), we want to get a deeper understanding of how participation can help funding flow to communities more equitably, and how it might enable us to work in greater solidarity with those we support.
What can we learn from those already doing participatory work?
For many funders in our networks, participation has been a priority for some time. Indeed, our 2022/23 member audit showed that 20% of funders in our membership now use community or local resident panels to make decisions about funding.
This is rooted in an understanding that individuals with lived experience of an issue should have decision-making power around the distribution of resources to address the specific needs and priorities of their communities.
Some of our members, like the placed-based giving schemes we support through London’s Giving, have years of experience and learning from involving local residents in their grantmaking. Others, like Trust for London and City Bridge Foundation, appointed a panel of Disabled activists to shortlist applicants to their disability justice fund. The Co-op Foundation involved young people in creating their new strategy and Newham Council’s ‘People Powered Places’ is one of the largest participatory budgeting programmes in the country. Waltham Forest is also adopting methods to involve residents in decision-making and policy development, with their second citizens’ assembly kicking off in in February and March 2024.
We want to bring together learning from those doing participatory work to help us understand the breadth of approaches being taken, what it takes to do it well and how it might enable us and our members to be responsive to the needs of London’s communities.
In the months ahead, we’ll be digging deeper into all things participation through our member-led networks and forums as well as our learning programme of events, resources and intelligence-gathering. To keep up to date with our learning programme, make sure you and your colleagues are signed up to the weekly newsletter to London Funders members. If you want to share learning from the work you’re doing around participation, please get in touch with our Learning and Communications Manager, Malene Bratlie here .