Author Archive:

Cassie Robinson

Conference reports 1 Cassie Robinson 29 March 2023

Making sure we don’t just repattern what’s come before

Last week 12 different foundations from across Europe came together in Brussels for the Philanthropy in Transitions Practice Lab, hosted by Philea and co-led by myself and Jesper Christiansen from Bikubenfonden in Copenhagen. This was …

Opinion Cassie Robinson 14 March 2023

Imagination Infrastructures – resourcing the work of other possibilities.

‘What lies ahead? Reimagining the world. Only that.’   – Arundhati Roy. On Wednesday this week over 800 people have signed up to attend Imagination Infrastructures – a time between worlds. The interest in this event …

Opinion Cassie Robinson 27 November 2022

Building power in communities

It feels like it’s been quiet in UK funder land in relation to tech. It may just be that I am out of the loop and that there are funding programmes focussed on tech. Or perhaps …

Opinion Cassie Robinson 3 July 2022

What’s really needed of us all now: New frontiers in funding, philanthropy, and investment

In July, a new conference in London will bring together innovators across the philanthropic and investment worlds, to learn from one another and make new connections. The event will explore approaches in investment and philanthropy …

Opinion Cassie Robinson 31 January 2022

Funding the third horizon

Over the last 10 months I have been co-hosting a Philea Community of Practice on Strategic Foresight, Imagination and Regenerative Futures. In September’s session the focus of the conversation was to explore what it means …

Opinion Cassie Robinson 21 November 2021

Community-scale missions need all sectors working together

At the end of June this year, we announced a new funding and support programme – a pilot partnership between The National Lottery Community Fund and IKEA UK. The programme, Places Called Home, aims to …

Opinion Cassie Robinson 4 November 2021

10 year grants: investing in ecologies and ecosystems to do the long, deep work of system shifting change

The Growing Great Ideas Fund from the National Lottery Community Fund offers long term, multi-year funding to initiatives with the potential to achieve transformative, longer-term change. Last month we announced the first recipients of Growing …

Opinion 1 Cassie Robinson 21 June 2021

The grantmaking practices we need

I’ve been thinking a lot about grantmaking as a practice, and in particular what kinds of practices we need to steward what Arundhati Roy talks of here – ‘Another world is not only possible, she …

Opinion Jim Cooke and Cassie Robinson 29 April 2021

Practical tips for funder collaboration in new toolkit

It doesn’t take long online to find content about collaboration – what makes a good collaboration, stories from the frontlines of collaboration, and so forth. It’s much harder to find content that practically guides you …

Opinion Cassie Robinson 13 May 2020

Reflections from a funder on the frontline of grantmaking during COVID-19 in the UK – Part 3

This is the third post in a series of Observations from a funder on the frontline of grantmaking during Covid-19. Last week The National Lottery Community Fund hosted the first of a series of three …