Our ‘Givings Together’ work is the first part of a potential two-stage process. We thought it useful to share our overall ambition and where we are up to versus our intended plan.

Our overall Aim is to

• create systemic change in the funding world, using participatory practices to shift power back to the communities in how money is spent and decisions made locally.
• address structural discrimination in accessing funding and support across diverse communities in London.

which will be achieved by

• using participatory approaches to enable seldom heard communities to build their leadership skills and overcome barriers to accessing grants and other support.
• learning from each other and build on the best practises of the schemes that have started to shift power from organisations to individuals.
• sharing the learning and insight we gain from this Stage One phase with others.

What we're doing at Stage 1

For Stage One, for which we have secured funding from the Cornerstone Fund, our intended outputs are to:

• Establish a Project Board to lead Stage One with at least 50% of the Project Board having key insight and experience of structural discrimination.
• Use our network to engage local and regional organisations with an interest in using participatory practices to tackle structural discrimination.
• Reach out to excluded groups to identify and prioritise these in each borough.
• Map participatory working models across London Place Based Giving Schemes.
• Speak to community groups about how we work with them as funders, how we can build capacity and enable them to overcome barriers to funding and other resources.
• Speak to companies about how they can work with us to shift power.
• Organise an end of Stage One event to share insights.

Where we’re up to

To date we have

• Met 4 times as a Project Board and numerous times in smaller groups and as a Project Team working behind the scenes.
• Invited and welcomed community leaders with insight and experience of structural discrimination to the Board.
• Agreed a project plan and budget, sent out a Press Release announcing news of our work, created a ‘Givings Together’ brand and our own Twitter account
• Determined a research specification, advertised the opportunity and have interviews lined up for a consultant role.
• Began consulting in our local areas with local authorities and other statutory bodies and community organisations on which communities face structural discrimination and are least heard.
• Set up sub-groups for a February event to share the work of Stage 1 and for working on the Stage 2 bid.

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.

We will keep you updated with the next stages of our journey including our first meeting as a complete Project Team board.