For the second year running, the Civic Power Fund and Jon Cracknell from The Hour Is Late have analysed social justice grantmaking in the UK. Funding Justice 2 looked at over £950 million worth of grants, from 60 social justice funders – c. 21% of UK foundation giving from 2021/22. 

The first edition of the research looked at social justice grantmaking from 2018/19, so we were keen to see what the data would reveal about funding patterns since the events of 2020 – including the pandemic and Black Lives Matter – that so starkly highlighted the inequities of our society.

Although a growing number of funders responded by promising to put more money towards tackling the root causes of injustice, and recognising their own role in upholding historic, harmful power dynamics, we did not find this reflected in the grants data.

Findings

Little funding went to work challenging injustice. Of the 18,816 grants analysed from 60 funders committed to social justice, just 27% (£256 million) were grants focussed on social justice work – 5.7% of UK foundation giving in the UK in 2021/22.

The funding that did go to challenging injustice was spread very thinly across organisations. The 2,773 social justice grants analysed were distributed across 1,707 different grantees. Grantees tended to receive small sums of money. 43.2% of them secured less than £50,000 of grant funding.

The majority of social justice funding went to service delivery work, or work in elite settings. In Funding Justice 2, we analysed each social justice grant to see what kind of work to tackle injustice was being funded, drawing on the Ayni Institute’s framework for understanding the different theories of change required for successful social movements. This revealed that:

• Almost a third of the £256m of social justice grants analysed went to service delivery work. This work is important in supporting and caring for marginalised and minoritised communities, but it only addresses the symptoms (not the causes) of injustice.
• 37% of this money went to ‘inside game’ work – negotiating change from within established institutions. For example, research, policy advocacy or strategic litigation.
• Less than 10% of social justice funding went to work agitating for change from the ‘outside track’ – the power-building work of community organising, activism, or street-level mobilisation. For communities who have been excluded from elite settings, this kind of work is essential in getting their voices heard.

Social justice grants are still not shifting power to or building the power of communities. Just 1.6% of all the grants analysed in the report went to organising or power building work – 0.33% of all UK foundation giving that year. And much of the money that went to social justice work did not reach the local level. 63.4% of social justice grants went to work carried out at the national level. Of the rest of the grants that went to sub-national work, there was a high concentration of grants in London – £407 of grants per 100 people, compared to £1 per person in five English regions.

As we reckon with today’s crises, the fight against injustice becomes ever more urgent. Marginalised and minoritised communities continue to suffer most from the economic, environmental, social and political challenges of today – the inflated cost of living; greater inequality and deprivation; the impacts of climate change; democratic decline.

While these challenges are complex, and cannot be solved by any single funder or grassroots organisations, we know that community organising is one of the ‘few proven routes to social change when there is a salient issue regarding an imbalance of power’. This practice builds people power – something oppressed communities should have to win justice.

But despite this, these numbers suggest a lack in both the quantity and quality of foundation grant money for community organising.

Funders must commit more resources to grassroots community organising if they are to help realise the just and equitable society they are committed to.

In addition to this, to truly reach the grassroots, funding practices need to change.

• More flexible, multi-year funding. This research suggests there is a high turnover of grantees amongst UK social justice funders. The work of building self-determining communities and authentic community leadership takes time, and requires a deep understanding of the context, dynamics and needs. Funding should reflect this.
• Strategically deploy resources in key geographies. This research has revealed once again that the majority of foundation funding directed to social justice work is not geographically targeted. Funders must be more strategic about targeting resources to reach the affected communities where we find the seeds of transformative change.
• Change thinking about impact. The transformative wins of grassroots organising can take years to achieve. But the process of organising is as valuable as these outcomes. The deep listening and strengthening of agency at the heart of this practice can itself be transformative for marginalised or minoritised people. Funders must allow space for their partners to make mistakes, learn, and sustainably grow the power of their communities.
• Pool and target resources strategically. Funding Justice 2 gives a picture of social justice philanthropy as a whole, encouraging funders to think about problems and solutions collectively. Not every funder will be best placed to fund community organising directly. Funder intermediaries can be an effective way of organising and channelling resources to the grassroots groups who often slip under the radar of bigger funders (as revealed by the high demand for the Civic Power Fund’s Community Action Fund).

As a key piece of infrastructure for social justice philanthropy, we hope funders can use Funding Justice 2 as a mirror: focussing on a shared vision of a just and equitable world, and how to best support the social movements needed to achieve this.

Eliza Baring has a background in research and policy advocacy in the third sector. She works as the Project Support Officer for the Civic Power Fund, where she has focused on research and developing a legal advice service for civil society organisations.