At the end of last year, we updated you on our funding plans for 2023. Here director of grants Klara Skrivankova explains more about our approach to awarding continuation funds to some existing funded partners this year.
As I write this, we have just finished distributing almost £4m in grants, in our last open funding round until we launch our new strategy in 2024.
We recently updated you that we’ve made the difficult decision not to open for new applications in 2023. The best way we can provide stability at this time is by supporting organisations we already fund, as soaring costs put more pressure on already stretched charity resources. That’s why this year we’ll focus on providing continuation funding to a selection of existing grantees with grants ending before March 2024.
There is less money in our budget than in previous years for us to give out in 2023. We too are not insulated from economic shocks. The continued volatility impacts our endowment, much of which is invested in the stock market.
To put this into context, we have some 120 organisations with grants ending in the next twelve months, with a total value over £11m. With our current level of resources, we will be able to re-fund just under two thirds of those.
Some of the current grants have a natural end point and will not carry on, such as one-off research projects or where organisations have shifted focus. But that still means difficult decisions about which projects we continue to fund. We know that a lot of our funding goes towards salaries and want to make sure that where we offer further funding, it is at least for two years.
We’ve looked at our grants portfolio, talked to partners and considered the situation in London, to help us identify where continued investment will impact the most on poverty and inequality in the capital. We’ve arrived at a set of principles that will help us shortlist which projects to invite to apply for continuation funding.
Our continuation funding priorities:
- Organisations led by people directly affected by poverty and inequality
- Organisations maintaining essential services in areas where there are few available
- Work that has a strong impact on a particular issue or community.
These decisions will not be easy. But we don’t want charities hard at work to waste time by competing over a small pot of money unnecessarily. We will therefore only shortlist as many organisations as we can afford to fund.
We’ll be writing to organisations that are shortlisted to apply for continuation funding by 10 March with information about how and when to submit an application.