It is no secret that charities, voluntary organisations and community groups are facing an exceptionally difficult time at the moment. And they have been for some time.
Each week we're seeing more reports of how charities are having to do more with fewer resources, with demand for their services continuing to increase. Many funders too are struggling to meet the level of financial resource and support that organisations sorely need. There are many factors contributing to this but the knock-on effect that sustained cuts to local authority funding is having on trusts and foundations should not be underestimated.
Of course, we're all familiar with the systemic issues that have led us to this situation – a benefit system that fails to offer the security people need in times of hardship; an immigration system intentionally rooted in hostility; a housing crisis denying millions of people a safe and secure home to name but a few. Charities often have to ‘pick up the pieces’, leaving them with little resource or time to imagine and fight for a better alternative for the communities they support.
Against this backdrop it’s critical that funders are coordinated in their efforts, avoid duplication and work together to resource both the urgent ‘stuff’ and the long-term, systemic change that is so clearly needed.
In other words, funders – from the private, independent and public sectors – need to collaborate if we are to make headway on some of the shared challenges we face. A call for funders to collaborate is nothing new – and we know from our work on Propel (a long term £100m collaboration) and the London Community Response (a crisis collaboration of almost £60m in one year) that the desire to work together is there. But too often funders’ organisational cultures, processes and restrictions make it hard to put this into action. Alongside these barriers, we also know the funding system as a whole remains imbalanced – we still need to shift the dial in terms of how we work fund more equitably alongside civil society, and bring in their expertise much earlier on.
All of this has been the driver in getting London Funders’ new subsidiary company, the Collaboration Circle off the ground and why it feels different this time. The Collaboration Circle provides the space and infrastructure to enable funders to pool their funding and work alongside civil society to design and deliver how this should be used. It is being overseen by a Board of Directors drawn in equal number from the funding community and civil society organisations focussed on equity and justice.
So how will is work in practice? For each pooled fund, the Board will appoint a Funding Committee, made up from funders as well as partners from community organisations, which could include specialists in the area or issue being funded, or people with lived experience in the communities being supported. We want to hard wire a more equitable way of working at every level, and from the start of each collaboration.
If we are to make a dent in the shared challenges we face, we need to rethink how we respond as funders – the Collaboration Circle has the potential to be a gamechanger for how we fund.
A seconded team will support the Funding Committee to put the funding collaboration into practice - things like designing the fund, application process, and decision making. Staff involved in the Operational team will include secondees from the funding organisations and their partners from civil society organisations. So rather than responsibility sitting with one ‘lead’ organisation, control sits across a much broader group of people. And alongside this shared control, we have a big focus on shared learning: we’ve created Collaboration Circle to be a space where funders and civil society can experiment, learn and practice new ways of funding together, before taking that learning back into their own organisations.
All of this means new ways of imagining financial models, risk and governance. We’re really excited to be working with London Metropolitan University as part of a new Knowledge Transfer Partnership to help us do this. Working with KTP Associate Shrabani Bhattacharjee, we’re able to bring academic rigour and business expertise to the heart of Collaboration Circle (you can read more about this exciting partnership here).
The Collaboration Circle can host multiple collaborations at the same time, so there will also be opportunities to learn from how each develops and share this learning between them. The impetus behind each collaboration could come from funders asking the Collaboration Circle to host it, or from civil society and community groups asking for funders to come together on a topic. So far, the emerging collaborations we’re talking to are a combination of these – for example, one is building on an existing borough based partnership and another is keen to use a pooled fund for a regional collaboration outside London.
If we are to make a dent in the shared challenges we face, we need to rethink how we respond as funders – the Collaboration Circle has the potential to be a gamechanger for how we fund. And to do this we have incredible shared resources between us – and that’s not just the financial resources, but funders’ convening and influencing power, and communities’ expertise & knowledge about the solutions.
Our call to action for funders is simple – join us! It doesn’t matter whether you’ve pooled funding before, or if you’re unsure what you can commit to a pooled fund. Unlike other collaborations we’ve convened up till now, there is no geographical limitation to where the Collaboration Circle can work. What’s important is being up for learning with others about how funding can work differently. Check out more information on our website, or get in touch with us via info@collaborationcircle.org.uk if you want to explore this opportunity further.
Interested in learning more?
To find out more or to get involved in a Collaboration Circle
