Skip to main navigation Skip to main content
  • Member Login
Home
  • About Us
    • Introducing London Funders
    • Our People
    • Our mission and strategy
    • Governance & Annual Reports
    • Working at London Funders

    About Us

    London Funders is the only cross-sector membership network for funders and investors in London’s civil society.

    • Introducing London Funders
    • Our People
    • Our mission and strategy
    • Governance & Annual Reports
    • Working at London Funders
  • What we do
    • Connecting our members
      • Member-led Networks
      • Local Funder Forums
    • Enabling funder collaboration
      • Collaboration Circle
      • Grenfell Tower
      • London Community Response
      • Long-term funder collaboration: Propel
    • Championing the importance of ‘place’
      • London's Giving
    • Research & Evidence: our live projects
      • Equity Infrastructure Mapping

    What we do

    With everything from regular events to facilitating learning and collaboration, this is how we enable funders from all sectors to be effective.

    • Connecting our members
    • Enabling funder collaboration
    • Championing the importance of ‘place’
    • Research & Evidence: our live projects
  • Latest
    • News
    • Events
      • Past Events
    • Jobs
      • Past Jobs

    Latest

    Here's the latest news, views and job vacancies from London Funders and the wider funding community.

    • News
    • Events
    • Jobs
  • Learning
    • Our approach to learning
    • Join our learning community
    • Areas of Learning
      • What does it take to fund systems change?
      • Practising participation
      • Reconsidering Risk
      • Sharing power
      • Learning from our collaborations

    Learning

    Our ambition is to drive a learning culture across our membership, where shared data, intelligence and insight leads to better decision-making and action. 

    • Our approach to learning
    • Join our learning community
    • Areas of Learning
  • Membership
    • Why join London Funders?
    • Meet our members
    • Latest member audit: 2024/25
      • Latest member audit: 2022/23

    Membership

    Find out more about who we are, how to join and who's in our membership.

    • Why join London Funders?
    • Meet our members
    • Latest member audit: 2024/25
  • Resources & Publications
    • Publications
    • Data insights for funders
    • Hubs
      • Covid-19 Resource Hub
      • Cost of Living Crisis Resource Hub
      • Refugee Resource Hub

    Resources & Publications

    Explore our resources for funders, including London Funders publications, datasets, tools & recruitment.

    • Publications
    • Data insights for funders
    • Hubs
Search the site

London Community Response

As the crisis hit, we knew we needed to immediately communicate with our members and encourage them to think about where they needed to collaborate. We spoke with Londoners, our members, and civil society organisations of all shapes and sizes. More than anything, we were hearing how imperative it was for funders to reassure grantees of their continued support during this crisis, and that future funding rounds needed to be informed by the experiences of communities affected by covid-19. 

As a first step we drafted a funder statement: We stand with the sector. Over 400 funders pledged to show an understanding that there will be times when staff and volunteers will not be available, when beneficiaries may require services to be provided in different ways, or when systems must be flexible to ensure that needs are met. We also helped launch a sister statement for European funders which went on to have over 200 funders committing to the same principles across the continent. 

The ‘We Stand with the Sector’ was only the beginning. Building on the lessons and infrastructure we already had in place from coordinating the funder response to the Grenfell Tower fire, we set up the London Community Response – a single application point for charities and community groups which enabled them to access funding from multiple funders in a fast and efficient way. The London Community Response was an unprecedented funder collaboration – 67 funders came together to support London’s civil society through the covid-19 crisis, distributing £57.5m to over 3,3000 groups.  

We also worked with equity partners and friends across the sector to promote inclusive funding approaches, acknowledging that the pandemic was disproportionately affecting already marginalised and discriminated-against communities. 

We were delighted to be announced the winner of the 2021 Charity Award in the newly created ‘Covid-19 Response’ category, recognised for providing invaluable guidance, leadership and a vehicle for practical collaboration for grant-givers, social investors and commissioners. We were also honoured to be a finalist in the Third Sector Awards for ‘Breakthrough of the Year’ in 2021.  

Looking to the future, we will bring together even more learning as a platform for continued collaboration between funders to tackle the issues facing our communities, ensuring that every Londoner can thrive.  You can read the learning reports from the London Community Response below 

  • Click here for 'Learnings from the London Community Response’s equity-centred grantmaking during covid-19'. Here are two further case studies on equity-centred grantmaking.

  • Click here for 'Scenarios for London’s communities in 2023 and implications for funders'

  • Click here for 'Recommendations for improving the processes behind funder collaboration' 

  • Click here for 'How civil society delivered differently, and how funders need to support groups in the future'

What we do

  • Connecting our members
    • Member-led Networks
    • Local Funder Forums
  • Enabling funder collaboration
    • Collaboration Circle
    • Grenfell Tower
    • London Community Response
    • Long-term funder collaboration: Propel
  • Championing the importance of ‘place’
    • London's Giving
  • Research & Evidence: our live projects
    • Equity Infrastructure Mapping

Related

News

"We stand with the sector" - funder response to Covid-19

13 Mar 2020
News

New report - Learnings from the London Community Response’s equity-centred grantmaking during covid-19

12 May 2021
News

Covid-19 Response - London Funders receives Charity Award

11 Jun 2021
Back to top
Home
  • About Us
  • What we do
  • Latest
  • Learning
  • Membership
  • Resources & Publications

Contact us

020 7255 4488
info@londonfunders.org.uk

Find Us

4 Chiswell Street
London, EC1Y 4UP

Follow

  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • ©London Funders 2021

  • Privacy and cookies

  • London Funders is a company limited by guarantee, registration number 5596299. Charity registration number 1116201

Site by Effusion