Graeme Duncan, CEO of Right to Succeed, explains that funding priorities must shift if the government’s new ‘Our Place to Give’ pledge is to deliver lasting change.
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The government’s new ‘Our Place to Give’ policy on place-based philanthropy is an important step towards recognising that lasting change in disadvantaged communities requires a collective impact approach. That means listening to residents, building on local strengths and backing solutions shaped by local people.

But above all, philanthropy must help to create the conditions for long-term change, not just fund short-term activity.

At Right to Succeed, we work alongside communities facing some of the greatest challenges in the country to transform outcomes for children and young people. Our role is not to arrive with a ready-made answer, but to provide backbone support that helps schools, services, community organisations and residents in communities facing the greatest multiple deprivation, come together around a shared plan and lead change locally.

That kind of work needs philanthropy. Not to replace the state, but because of philanthropy’s ability to back ambition, take a long view and invest in relationships and infrastructure that other funding can overlook.

Often, funding pays for pre-designed activity, but not the conditions that make change resilient. It supports delivery, not coordination. It asks for quick wins, when deep change can take a decade or more. Place-based change is growing rapidly, but too often without the methodology, capacity or patience required for success. That has to change.

Our Cradle to Career (C2C) work in North Birkenhead demonstrates what is possible when a different approach is taken. Initiated by the Steve Morgan Foundation and co-funded by SHINE, UBS Optimus Foundation and Wirral Council, C2C has enabled the community, services and partners in North Birkenhead to come together around a shared vision for children and families.

The results are significant, including the closing of a 15 month reading age gap across all 8-16 year olds - driving significant improvements in GCSE outcomes - and a 90% reduction in the number of children in care or on the edge of care.

But these impacts did not happen because one organisation delivered a single programme. They happened because philanthropy helped fund backbone support that coordinates relationships. In North Birkenhead, it empowered 39 core partners across education, services,

youth and community to collectively deliver the change. Cradle to Career has now scaled across six communities in the Liverpool City Region .

That is the lesson I hope the sector takes from the growing interest in place-based philanthropy. The real impact is not from imposing solutions on communities, but from backing communities to shape their own future and funding them to do it well.

This also matters as new programmes take shape. Cradle to Career has now launched in the West Midlands, made possible by The Rigby Foundation, West Midlands Combined Authority, Mayor Richard Parker, The National Lottery Community Fund, Jaguar Land Rover Foundation, UBS Optimus Foundation, The Swann Foundation, Medicor Foundation and local authorities, with plans to roll out across the region.

However, it is important to note that lasting change will not come from copying and pasting a model from elsewhere. It will come again from listening carefully, building trust, understanding local priorities and giving communities genuine agency from the outset.

For charities, funders and the government, the challenge is clear. If we want different outcomes, we need different habits: move beyond short funding cycles and top-down thinking, and value collaboration, local collective leadership and long-term commitment.

Place-based philanthropy has real potential, but it will only succeed if it funds what makes lasting change possible.

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