OUR AIM
We believe that to advance wellbeing we need to support charitable organisations that at their core are committed to ensuring the rights of people, society and the natural world for current and future generations.
WHAT WE FUND
In designing this strategy, we thought carefully about the context that we are operating in. We believe that we are living in an age of significant disruption and interconnected global threats that are impacting people, society and the natural world and that the solutions to these will elicit results now, but may also require decades and multiple generations before they are fully realised.
As a grantmaker with direct experience of funding work through our previous strategies relating to the environment, social causes and the arts, we feel well placed to support charitable work that responds to one or more of the following:
- Tackling the triple planetary crisis by mitigating and adapting to climate impacts, reducing pollution and protecting and restoring nature.
- Reducing polarisation, for example by building greater trust and connection, reducing polarisation within society and increasing the levels of participation and influence in the political process (which is sometimes referred to as political equality).
- Promoting the development and adoption of economic models and systems that support people and planet and reduce wealth inequalities.
- Advancing equity and justice for marginalised communities impacted by the issues above i.e. specifically communities impacted by the triple planetary crisis; polarisation and loss of trust, or exclusion from the political process; and/or harmful economic systems and wealth inequalities Applications under this area must be clear how one or more of these issues are at the heart of their work.
Your organisation may be working in one area, or across multiple areas – we do not have a preference either way, but we recommend focusing on whichever area(s) are the most closely aligned with your core work.
Alongside these strategic areas, we’re looking to fund organisations that can demonstrate that intrinsic to their approach they are:
1. Changemaking organisations.
We want to fund organisations that:
Understand their role within existing and/or new systems* and the role systems have on people, society and the natural world.
Have a clear strategy for how and why they intend to make change in existing and/or new systems, e.g. by challenging long-held orthodoxies and business as usual approaches, including helping us to see the world differently, or pursuing alternative and better approaches for people, society and the natural world, or having evidence-led approaches to policy, advocacy and campaigning work.
Are rooted in practical experience alongside their changemaking work.
Are engaging with unpopular or difficult causes.
AND
2. Committed to advancing justice* through the active involvement of individuals and communities with personal or direct experience of the issues.
We believe a justice led approach helps to secure equity, access and rights, especially for those experiencing exclusion and the most adverse impacts of this age of significant disruption and interconnected global threats.
We want to support work that seeks to advance justice by doing one or more of the following:
Building power and movements within communities by supporting activism work and community organising.
Advocating for change on the ‘inside track’, e.g. by improving policy, legislation and/or regulatory frameworks within political, public and corporate sectors.
Addressing the root causes of injustice, as well as the symptoms.
Developing alternative ideas and approaches that build new narratives and public understanding of an issue.
*For environmental organisations, this can include involving communities in creating change, as long as the work has justice at its heart. For more details about what we mean by ‘justice’ and ‘systems’, including environmental justice, please see the FAQs section.
WHAT OUR GRANTS CAN BE USED FOR
We offer multi-year funding for core costs and accept applications for a maximum of £180k over up to five years. We provide funding of up to a maximum of £60k per year (e.g. an organisation applying for £180k would need to request this funding over a minimum of three years).
We have a small Grants Team, and take a light touch approach to grants management, which means we don’t have the capacity to be an organisation’s main funder. Therefore, we ask that applicants consider the amount they are requesting per year in proportion with their annual income.
Core funding is funding which goes towards the central costs of delivering an organisation’s work. These costs could include:
staff salaries, training and expenses
day-to-day running costs and operations
monitoring and evaluation, including research
communications and digital innovation.
A helpful way to think about core funding is that we are making an investment in the organisation as a whole. If most or all of the activity that your organisation undertakes fits with our funding criteria, and you are a UK-registered charity, then you can apply for unrestricted core funding. By this we mean, you will be able to choose how you direct the funds within the lifetime of the grant, and do not need to specify this in advance. However, if there are aspects of your work that are not relevant, we ask that you specify where the funds would be directed to within your organisation, for example, to a particular role, team, or strategic area. We refer to this as restricted core funding.
It is not our preference to provide project funding, as we do not have much experience of this. By projects, we mean short term or one-off activities or initiatives that are tied to specific objectives and a specific timeframe. Organisations applying for project grants must still demonstrate overall alignment with our funding criteria. If you think a project grant would be best, please do discuss with us first.
To get an idea of the kind of grants we have awarded in the past, take a look at the grants list on our website or on 360Giving which show the grant duration, the amount awarded and a short summary of what the grant was for.