Grantmakers including the National Lottery Community Fund, Foundation Scotland and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation have partnered with City of Edinburgh Council to set up a £15m fund to tackle poverty, racism and the impact of climate change in the city.

The Edinburgh Regenerative Futures Fund is providing funding for the next ten years to good causes in the city involved in work to protect the environment and support those impacted by low income and discrimination.

Funding will be “long term and unrestricted” pledge the funders, who want to give grantees “the freedom to think and plan”.

Grants of up to £100,00 a year will be offered to around 10 to 15 charities and good causes in the city over the next decade. This will be paid annually to successful applicants.

Those interested in checking their eligibility are urged to apply by 22 April.

“The Regenerative Futures Fund is an ambitious vision to reimagine and demonstrate an alternative model of citizen-led change for the City of Edinburgh,” said Esmee Fairbairn Foundation funding manager Gillian Goode.

“Communities have no shortage of ideas for how to explore and create innovative solutions and address the inequalities that exclude people from being part of that experience; what they often lack is stable and secure resourcing and the right to decide how best to use it.

“We are grateful and excited to have the opportunity to learn alongside communities, other funders, City of Edinburgh Council, other partners and stakeholders how we might work together differently in future towards sustainable change that can meet everyone’s social and economic needs and safeguard our climate and natural world.”

Also involved is the Robertson Trust, William Grant Foundation and the Turn2us Edinburgh Trust.

“As an independent funder, we recognise our responsibility to explore new approaches, particularly to address the root causes of poverty, racial injustice and climate risks,” said Jim McCormick, chief executive of the Robertson Trust, which is supporting the fund with £1m.

“Our partners tell us consistently that lasting change cannot be achieved through short-term funding.

"That’s why we were drawn to the Regenerative Futures Fund’s long-term vision, its ambitious cross-sector collaboration, and its deep commitment to shifting power towards people and places with lived experience of these deep-seated challenges.”

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