In an ever-challenging world, the resilience of the voluntary sector is more crucial than ever. Resilience isn’t just about surviving the next crisis; it’s about thriving despite uncertainties. Many organisations are still feeling the impact of the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis, and are struggling to find time and money to invest in their infrastructure, operations and resources.
As a funder, it’s important for us to understand what our partners need to ensure they can continue making a positive impact on the young people and communities they support. We were delighted to host an event in July where we brought together seven other funders who provide resilience-related grants and support, to share learnings and best practice. The session was facilitated by our Resilience Fund learning partner, Social Innovation Exchange.
We took the opportunity to share our early insights from the development and delivery of our Resilience Fund. The first cohort of organisations graduated from the programme in April 2024, and we’ve seen impressive progress in each organisation’s ability to develop practices and behaviours that support a culture of resilience. For example, some organisations brought on board additional staff so that operational staff could step away from programmatic delivery. This has had an immediate knock on effect on financial sustainability, operations, strategy and business planning.
Equally, our wraparound learning programme has given our partners the time and space to consider resilience as a core (and vital) component of organisational development. Coming together as a cohort, aligned in shared pressures, alleviated some of the reticence about taking time away from a very busy schedule to interact with each other, and the topic of resilience. This has undoubtedly been a stepping stone in their journey to resilience and will create a legacy beyond our funding.
Despite the differences in approach adopted by the funding organisations around the table, the discussion highlighted lots of synergies across our work. It also found that many of us are seeing a growing trend towards multi-year grants and flexible funding, which provide charities with the stability needed to plan long-term projects and survive unexpected challenges.
A recurring topic was the importance of strengthening and opening up channels of communication between different stakeholders working in this way, to talk more about the impact of funding, avoid duplication and deepen voluntary sector impact.
We are already continuing the conversation and are thinking ahead to future events that highlight the importance of supporting organisational resilience work, and shaping the future of charity resilience and impact.
Thank you to the funders who contributed to the discussion.
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CAF (Charities Aid Foundation)
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Clarion Housing
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The Fore
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Impact on Urban Health
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John Lyons Charity
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London Funders
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London Legal Support Trust