Trust for London - Racial Justice Fund

Background

The Trust for London has been working to make London a better, fairer city by tackling the root causes of poverty since 1891.

The £4 million Racial Justice Fund was launched in May 2022 by the Trust for London and City Bridge Trust working in partnership, as part of each organisation's long-term strategic commitment to address the issues of racial justice.

The focus of the Racial Justice Fund is to tackle racial injustice by reducing poverty in London’s Black and minoritised communities by increasing household income and the amount of household and community wealth.

Objectives of Fund

The Fund aims to challenge the underlying reasons that cause so many Black and minoritised communities to be denied the opportunity to be economically empowered.

The funding is for organisations that aim to tackle the root causes of the problem, not the symptoms.

This might include, but is not limited to, the following examples:

• Campaigning and research to change policy and practice on the disparities across housing, employment, and social welfare.
• A comprehensive agenda to close the racial wealth gap.
• Feasibility into the creation of Black owned co-operatives - advocating for structural changes to make business ownership more accessible to Black and minoritised, workers and communities.
• Work that looks to narrow wealth gaps through equitable local government, state contracting and procurement.
• Work to connect more individuals and families from Black and minoritised communities to affordable housing, homeownership, good jobs, and better wages.
• Black-led Community Land Trusts (CLT’s) as a tool to concentrate community control and protect against low-income resident displacement.
• Measures that address inequalities in pay, such as ethnicity pay gap reporting.
• Addressing pension poverty based on ethnicity, particularly due to high levels of Black and minoritised workers in the gig economy

Value Notes

There is a funding pot of £4 million in two phases over two years.

There is no minimum or maximum amount specified. Grants of up to five years can be made.

As a guide, in the first round, grants of between £50,000 and £248,000 were awarded to six organisations from a period of two to five years.

To encourage stronger partnerships in the sector, development grants will also be available to support consortiums to work up their proposals and think through how they would be working together.

Who Can Apply

To be eligible to apply, groups must:

• Have at least three trustees or directors.
• Be proposing work in London and/or benefitting Londoners.
• Be undertaking charitable activities, though organisations do not need to be registered charities.

Priority will be given to applicants that:

• Have a significant track record of working on issues of racial justice and economic empowerment.
• Are majority-led by Black and minoritised communities (75% Trustees and/or 50% senior staff).
• Take an intersectional approach reflecting the overlapping and interconnected systems of oppression and disadvantage that people experience.
• Are working in partnership to strengthen joint work on specific issues as well as smaller scale projects and research.

Restrictions

The following are not eligible for funding:

• Direct service delivery including employment support, advice, training and mentoring.
• Leadership acquisition programmes that benefit individuals, but with no clear link to how the programmes create changes to the system locking black and minoritised communities out of decision-making roles.
• Programmes focused on mental health services and procurement practices as a route to tackling health inequalities.
• Mentoring programmes to broaden access to the digital marketing industry for young Black people in London.
• Programs focused on diversity rather than equity in pay.
• Individuals.
• Mainstream public services including schools and hospitals.
• Organisations with fewer than three people on their governing body.
• Promotion of religion.
• General appeals.
• Work that has already taken place.
• Organisations holding significant free reserves.
• Organisations in serious financial deficits.
• Capital costs, including building and renovations (although small items of office equipment such as computers can be funded).

The full list of restrictions can be found in the guidance notes for Phase 2.

Eligible Expenditure

The funding is flexible and can be for core and/or project funding to further the work outlined in the application.

The shortlisting criteria is for work that can demonstrate some of the following:

• A clear case for how their work will advance racial and economic justice within Black and minoritised communities.
• The potential to have significant influence and impact, helping to achieve the fund’s desired outcomes.
• Strong and meaningful engagement of people directly affected by poverty and inequality in the leadership of their organisation, service design and campaigns.
• Skills, experience, and ability within the organisation to undertake the proposed work and that the work is of a high quality.
• The organisation has a clear commitment to working more widely than individuals (it should not just benefit individuals but contribute to systemic change) and collaborating with others.
• Is open and accessible to minoritised groups that miss out the most.
• Smart use of resources to achieve the most impact. This might look like using technology or automating projects (CRM, Software) to speed up and ease processes to fulfil their objectives.
• Clear strategies to mitigate/reduce challenges/risks, including a well-developed approach to safeguarding.

How To Apply

Expressions of Interest for Phase 2 will be accepted from 5 September to 16 October 2023.

There is a two stage application process:

• The first stage is to submit an Expression of Interest form which will be available when the fund opens.
• Stage two is for applicants who were successful at stage one. They will be invited to submit a full application.

Key dates for Phase 2:

• 5 September 2023 – Applications open for expressions of interest.
• 16 October 2023 – Deadline for expressions of interest.
• 20 November 2023 – Successful expressions of interest invited to apply for a full application.
• 22 December 2023 – Deadline for full applications.
• April 2024 – Grants awarded.

Information webinars will be held on:

• 19 September (10:00-11:15 am)
• 21 September (10:00-11:15 am)

Registration is required and can be done via eventbrite. Registration closes on 14 September 2023 (5pm).

Full guidelines, an Expression of Interest and link to book a place for the Information session can be found on the Trust for London website.

Contact Trust for London for more information.