Building stronger communities across the UK
Grant-making in the UK is not distributed evenly, and the patterns are too consistent to be accidental. If foundations are serious about equity, they must begin by auditing their own application processes — and their own instincts.
We spent three months cataloguing every hireable community space in a single UK postcode — from church halls to a disused branch library. What the map revealed was less about buildings than about who is quietly excluded from them.
Formal volunteering has yet to recover its pre-pandemic footing, and the blame lies less with a shortage of goodwill than with recruitment models built for another era. If charities want helpers back, they must offer commitment on the volunteer's terms — not the organisation's.
From a rewired village hall in Powys to a Saturday youth club in Salford, modest sums are often doing the heaviest lifting in Britain's communities. This piece examines why speed and simplicity frequently outperform scale, and sets out a practical framework for funders ready to simplify their giving.
Small charities across the UK are being failed by a grant-making culture that stops at the money. If foundations are serious about strengthening communities, we must offer our expertise, our networks and our patience alongside our cheques.
Ten years of grant-making has shown us that lasting change rarely follows a formula. We revisit five funded projects — from a Glasgow allotment to a Cardiff youth hub — and distil the practical lessons every applicant group should know.