Re-launching an open fund: lessons learned from the London Marathon Foundation

The London Marathon Foundation is one of the UK’s major funders of initiatives that support people – especially children, young people and underserved communities – to lead active and healthy lives.

We’re the parent charity of London Marathon Events (LME), whose event portfolio includes the TCS London Marathon and Ford RideLondon-Essex. Every year, we use the surplus money generated by LME, to fund projects that inspire, increase and champion participation and diversity in physical activity in London and across the UK.

In this session, we’ll share learnings from having to close our main funding programme during the pandemic due to a loss of income, how this brought us closer to our grantees, and the differences we’ve noticed in the sector since being able to relaunch an open funding programme (our Active Spaces Fund) in late 2022.

The Festival is open to all members of London Funders. Unless otherwise specified, we are not able to accept bookings from non-members. If you’re a funder and interested in becoming a London Funders member, please find out more here.