Photo Credit: Benoit Grogan - Settle (Resilience Fund Partner)
We are delighted to share that Berkeley Foundation has strengthened its commitment to flexible funding by unrestricting 25% of all new grants.
Our 2024 partnership survey highlighted the need for increased unrestricted funding and more opportunities to support core costs as a key trend among our charity partners.
“The combination of unrestricted funding, access to the supply chain, other community partners and Berkeley volunteers enables us to achieve the very best for our service users.”
There is significant evidence to demonstrate the value of unrestricted funding for both voluntary sector organisations and funders.
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It recognises the experience, skill and knowledge of our charity partners, and respects their ability, as the experts on the ground, to make informed decisions about the best use of funds.
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It recognises that the future is unpredictable, and charities are navigating an uncertain and rapidly changing external environment. Unrestricted funding allows charities to respond quickly to changing needs and circumstances.
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It helps build strong, trust-based relationships with charity partners – functioning as a vote of confidence in their mission, organisation and team, and an investment in a common goal.
While we recognise that unrestricted funding plays a crucial role in enabling organisational resilience, we also see value in ringfencing grants for organisational development work that meets the individual needs of our charity partners, as well as working collaboratively with our partners to scale and innovate their programmes over the long-term. We take a multi-pronged approach to funding with flexibility at the heart of all our partnerships.
Our approach to unrestricted funding
We are committed to increasing the proportion of unrestricted and core funding we are providing, in line with what we know charities need. Here’s a snapshot of our progress to date:
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From January 2025, we will unrestrict 25% of all new grants for partner charities to use flexibly.
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We will continue to fund a proportion of core costs through all our existing grants.
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In 2023/24 we increased the proportion of our total funding that is unrestricted or allocated to core costs from 46% to 51%. We are looking to further build on this over the next few years.
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We provide unrestricted funding to our charity partners through our match funding policy. This means that we will match fund 100% of donations to our partners through Payroll Giving, staff fundraising (up to £20,000 per charity per year), and volunteering time. Our Strategic and Community Partners receive this unrestricted funding quarterly, on top of their core grant funding.
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Our Community Partners, charity partners selected and supported by Berkeley’s individual operating companies, receive 100% unrestricted funding through staff fundraising and match funding grants from the Foundation.
“It feels a good balance between guidance, challenge, and connections. The trust and openness that exists means learnings can be shared, and in-grant amendments based on need are supported to deliver the strongest possible outcomes.”
Our approach ensures that, where we are giving funding that is restricted to a particular project or programme, the charity is also able to put some of our funding towards the necessary ‘back office’ activity that is needed to run a charity, including rent, utilities, administrative staff and fundraising costs. It recognises that the frontline work of most charities is not possible without having these necessary support functions in place.
You can read more about our broader commitments to being an open, trusting and flexible funder here.