Our vision for funding in England

Our strategy until 2030

In 2023 we launched our new seven-year strategy It Starts With Community. Following this, we’re making some exciting changes to how we will distribute over £3 billion to England’s communities.

The changes to our England funding

Targeting our funding to drive change

Our strategy includes our community-led missions. We’ll target our funding on particular outcomes within these missions, to drive the biggest change we can.

We’ll focus on:

• tackling health inequalities (as part of our mission to enable people to live healthier lives)
• environmental injustice and access to quality nature (as part of our mission to help communities be environmentally sustainable).
• inclusive places and activities, prioritising communities least able to help people come together (as part of our mission to help communities come together)
• supporting babies, children, young people and their families to navigate key transitions in their lives (as part of our mission to help children and young people thrive).

Partnering for bolder, longer-term impact

We know there is huge power in working with others and we cannot deliver our community-led missions alone. That’s why we want to go further than before, offering more than funding by making connections and building deep partnerships across all of our funding.

We’ll launch a new way to partner with us at a regional and national level in spring 2025.

We’re looking for partners now for three new approaches we’re developing.

Recognising not all communities start from the same place

We will take an equity-based approach to tackling inequality across our whole portfolio.

That means we will be shifting our funding over time to invest most in places, people and communities who experience poverty, disadvantage, and discrimination.

We will prioritise communities who feel least empowered at the moment. We’ll dedicate £275 million over the coming years to a Community Power Fund, a new You Decide fund, and a community leaders programme.

We’ll also take this approach when building partnerships and connections. And in our work to be more than a funder, such as our work to support grant holders and civil society organisations.

Find out more

You can find out more about our thinking around these changes in:

• our blog about the changes to our funding in England
• our media release about the changes to our funding in England
• our more detailed summary of our new funding approach.

What this means for our current funds

We’ll need to change how we work to focus on the missions mentioned above. But our current funds are still open. So we’ve published some guidance to what this means for our current funding in England in the meantime.

Read the guidance on the web pages for:

• our Reaching Communities fund
• our Partnerships fund.

We’re looking for partners now

Right now we are looking for partners for the development stages of three new approaches.

If you are interested in being our partner for these approaches, you can submit an expression of interest from Wednesday 8 January 2025.

Community Power

• We’ve committed to a £100 million, 10 year Community Power fund. We aim to launch the broader programme in 2026
• By community power, we mean local communities being able to influence and change the places they live. As well as the services they use, and decisions that affect their lives
• We’re looking for 10 to 15 partners to work with us in the development stage of the Community Power fund. This work will shape how the Community Power fund runs in the future
• For the development stage we have up to £1.2 million funding available for one year
• As a partner you’ll deliver activities in and with communities to increase their power, agency and control. You’ll also work with us, and the other partners, to understand what works best to increase community power
• We want to work with a range of organisations from small grassroots organisations to larger strategic ones. Particularly those that work in and with communities that are the most excluded and marginalised, and the least empowered.

You Decide

• We want to directly involve communities in how we work and give out funding. We’ll dedicate at least 5% of our £500 million funding for England each year to You Decide to help us do that
• We’re looking for up to 5 expert partners to involve communities in decisions about who and what to fund
• We have £2 million funding for this development stage. Partners will support communities to decide how to give out most of this funding to communities
• You Decide can support communities who share an identity, interest or experience. Or people living in the same place. Particularly those from communities who experience poverty, disadvantage and discrimination
• We want to work with a mix of organisations. Including people working at local and national levels
• Partners will engage communities directly in decision making about our funding. And contribute to how our future You Decide fund will work.

Grant Holder Support

• We want to deliver a package of funding and support to address the most common challenges that community organisations face
• We’ve committed £150 million of funding until 2030 to support our grant holders and other organisations that need it most. This funding will help increase the knowledge, skills and resilience of civil society organisations
• We’re looking for a partner to lead the development phase of this package of support. We’re offering £2.1 million in funding for this first stage
• The lead partner will bring together 8 to 10 other organisations and specialists in a partnership. Together they’ll work to find out what existing and future grant holders need, and what support would help them. Then use this to provide appropriate support
• We’ll focus on longer-term investment in those working with people facing the greatest challenges. Specifically people, places and communities who experience the most disadvantage, discrimination and poverty.