£20m fund to help charities ‘take risks’ launches

Grantmaker City Bridge Trust has launched a £20m fund to offer long term support to charities to help them innovate, take risks and work better together.

Through its Anchor Programme the funder is to award up to £19.8m to non-profit organisations in two funding rounds, the first launching this week, with the second scheduled for next year.

It aims to provide funding to 30 organisations supporting frontline charities, with a focus on long term work rather than specific projects. Another priority is on helping organisations that are tackling marginalisation in the capital, on grounds of race, sexuality, gender, or disability.

It also aims to support capacity building, information sharing in the charity sector and promote “a deeper focus on funded organisations’ learning journeys”.

Only organisations with a minimum annual income of £100,000 are eligible.

“We know from speaking to infrastructure charities that they often have to devote so much time and energy to securing funding for specific projects that they don’t have much capacity for strategic, long-term collaborative work,” said City Bridge Trust chair Giles Shilson.

“This long-term core funding will give organisations that support those working on London’s frontline the breathing space they need to collaborate, take risks and create systemic change.

“It will enable ‘anchor’ organisations – those that create a collective voice, build capacity and advocate for smaller charities – to work across the sector to address the marginalisation and discrimination that still blight our society.”

On offer is grants of between £50,000 and £150,000 over seven to 10 years through the fund, which has been co-designed with charity infrastructure bodies and “aims to provide the space and financial security the sector needs to deliver on long term partnerships to tackle systemic inequality”.

The deadline for applications for the first round of funding is 11pm on 8 May. The funder aims to have a decision for applications under £1m by October, with a decision on those over £1m by January.

Last year research published by IVAR called for funders to focus on unrestricted long-term funding for charities, to help them meet recruitment and retention challenges amid the cost-of-living crisis.