Haringey Giving recently led a successful bid from a collaboration of six local place-based giving schemes and has been awarded a grant from The Cornerstone Fund to help address structural discrimination in accessing funding and support for diverse communities in London.

As the nation recovers from the pandemic and the uncertainty this continues to bring, the six individual giving schemes, which are local funders in their respective London boroughs, have been motivated by recognition of the plight of marginalised groups experiencing difficulties accessing support. Their collaborative work, under the ‘Givings Together’ name, will use participatory approaches to grant funding and decision making, to enable marginalised groups and communities to build their leadership skills and help overcome barriers to accessing grants and other support.

With a shared commitment to shift power for communities impacted by structural discrimination, the partnership brings together well-established schemes as well as smaller, emerging place-based giving schemes. Partners include Barking & Dagenham Giving, Camden Giving, Haringey Giving, Harrow Giving, Merton Giving and The Kensington & Chelsea Foundation who will draw upon their unrivalled local knowledge, insight and expertise.

This is the first stage in a two-stage funding process. Participating schemes will work with people with lived experience and marginalized communities to co-design a 3-year project to create systemic change in the funding world. If successful, the second stage of the project will aim to shift power back to communities in how money is spent and how decisions are made locally.

The participatory working approaches identified and developed have the potential to be replicable and scalable amongst the wider London place-based giving scheme network; and to other grant makers including statutory partners aiming to devolve more power to communities and achieve full participatory ways of working.

Colin Bowen, Director of Haringey Giving said:
“Our project has the potential to fundamentally change the way funders and others in positions of power engage with our communities and allocate resources. The appetite for participatory grant giving is growing and has significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. We have a shared commitment to further accelerating the use of wider participatory approaches across the place-based giving movement and inspiring action across the wider funding sector, shifting power for marginalized communities.”

The following local Giving Schemes are included in the project: Barking & Dagenham Giving, Camden Giving, Haringey Giving, Harrow Giving, Kensington & Chelsea Foundation, Merton Giving.

The Cornerstone Fund is a funder collaboration currently involving City Bridge Trust, the GLA, the National Lottery Community Fund, Trust for London and the John Lyons Charity.  It forms part of CBT’s Bridging Divides Strategy 2018 – 2023. Their collective vision is for London to be a city where all individuals and communities can thrive.  Their mission is to reduce inequality and grow stronger, more resilient and thriving communities for a London that serves everyone.

The Cornerstone Fund aims to bring about systemic change, enabling civil society support organisations to collaborate to achieve the goals of: a thriving civil society that is adaptable, resilient, collaborative, sustainable and driven by communities, with a focus on tackling deep seated structural inequalities to improve outcomes for Londoners.

Place based giving is a movement that is taking hold across London and is mobilising communities at a grassroots level to act to strengthen their boroughs.London Funders is committed to supporting effective local place-based giving schemes across London able to respond appropriately and ambitiously to local opportunities and conditions.