How can philanthropy and government weave a stronger web of support for civil society to thrive and achieve social change? At our Festival of Learning session, I was pleased to bring together a wide range of funder perspectives to discuss the opportunities for joined-up funding and influencing. My excellent panel included Katherine Duerden from 360Giving, Hannah Hoare from The Blue Thread and Kirsten Westlake from Two Magpies Fund.
We discussed the challenges of influencing government funding or policy, responding to gaps in statutory funding, and using grant making data to understand the wider funding landscape. Drawing on the experience of a funder collaboration, we explored how joining forces can support achieving policy and practice change.
What roles should government and philanthropy play?
Government and philanthropy have a huge overlap in goals, albeit with different resources and approaches at their disposal. Many foundations’ strategies cover similar ground to the government’s priorities set out in its Plan for Change in 2024, including Best Start in Life, the response to Violence Against Women, the Test, Learn and Grow programme and the mission-based UKRI research programmes.
A number of initiatives have created fresh opportunities for civil society and philanthropy to connect with government decision-making: the Starmer government’s Civil Society Covenant with a commitment to mutual learning (“working together to ensure all parties can be open about what has worked well and what needs to improve”) and its associated Civil Society Council, the Place Based Philanthropy strategy and the Office for the Impact Economy. The Future Governance Forum’s Social Insights Panel is working on bringing more civil society expertise into government decision-making. There is also scope for the growth in interest in place-based change to pave the way for closer relationships and joined-up strategies.
How should philanthropy respond to government activity in their strategic priority areas, and make the most in the surge of appetite in closer working? And how can we increase support to charities navigating the different timeframes and risk appetites of independent funding versus national and local government commissioning and grant-making? Are there ways for foundations, local authorities and national government to increase their mutual visibility?
Independent foundations work at a different speed to government, with different accountability structures, different data systems, and different decision-making cultures. We discussed their greater scope to act quickly and flexibly, and absorb more uncertainty than statutory systems.
We focused on two opportunities for funders to strengthen the funding ecosystem: using and contributing to collective intelligence, and engaging and supporting others’ engagement.
Using and contributing to collective intelligence
Making the most of available data and evidence is key to developing effective strategies and grant making. This means understanding the needs you are trying to address, the existing funding landscape, and what is known on the potential solutions and interventions.
We discussed the benefits of using 360Giving’s UKGrantmaking data, which provides an overview of who makes grants across all funding sectors. Mapping existing funding for legal advice and social welfare advice in London has helped funders to understand funding trends and informed funder collaborations.
Collaborating across several foundations focused on the same policy area can also help strengthen collective intelligence.
Funders have found that combining forces on research to improve policy or practice can strengthen lobbying efforts, helping to drive changes in legislation and practice.
Engage and support engagement
Because of their independence, foundations are often well placed to use the knowledge and networks they build in particular policy areas to engage directly with funders and government. They can also support others’ influencing through cross-sector convening or funding.
Engaging upstream can be very powerful, which means seeking conversations with government departments at the strategy and commissioning stage, not just as implementation partners further down the line. There are, of course, a range of approaches to political influencing. Building on political momentum can mean fast results, whilst supporting neglected causes can be slower but important work. In some cases, less collaborative approaches to influencing, such as supporting strategic litigation, may also be needed.
As many funders move towards more defined strategic goals, being deliberate and conscious about how they engage with the wider system will be key to achieving them.
Greater engagement can strengthen connections between philanthropy and government, and help make the funding ecosystem more collectively responsive to the realities and needs of communities and civil society.
Anne Kazimirski is a strategy and impact consultant working with charities and foundations to improve their approaches to achieving and understanding their impact. Anne was Evidence and Impact Director at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation and Impact on Urban Health, and led research and consultancy teams at NPC and NatCen Social Research. She is on the board of the Agenda Alliance.