Philanthropy and Social Investment for the Future: More needs to be done
Do it Now Now exists to level the playing field to ensure that people of all races, and specifically Black people, living in the UK and in Africa have equal access to tools, and resources needed to create a better and more sustainable future for themselves and our community. As a result we have entered into specific models of development and delivery of said tools and resources that have included the inception of a grant-making function within our organisation called, Common Call.
Over the past 2 years we have had responsibility over the distribution of over £750k to organisations that have been historically underfunded and as a result incapable of building the capacity to engage in mainstream systems of funding.
APPG (All-Party Parliamentary Groups) recently released a report titled Unleashing the Potential of Philanthropy and Social Investment that highlighted the availability of funds across the sector as well as the importance of increasing access to funds through policy.
The report asserts that “the UK has a track record of bold policy action to support philanthropy and social investment, and has created a world-class regime for giving and philanthropy” focusing on Gift Aid as an effective way to place the public benefit as a top priority. Despite this, the report highlights that of a possible £100 billion in funds that have been ring-fenced for domestic philanthropy, much of it is not reaching its full potential due to policies that are restrictive and can be amended to increase access for smaller organisations outside of the top foundations (around 300) that receive the bulk of the funds.
APPG proposes a 10-point plan to increase access to funds for the UK charity and social investment sector, namely:
Appoint a philanthropy and social investment champion as a senior post within the civil service.
Build civil service knowledge of philanthropy, match funding and social investment based finance
Keep regulations on value-based investment under review
Work with charity commission and FCA to develop guidance and target regulation
Support initiatives to develop data on the economic and social contribution of philanthropy and social investment
Extend DCMS growing place-based giving programme
Develop match funds on priority themes
Review incentive for social investment learning lessons from SITR (Social Investment Tax Relief)
Offer long-term commitment to government guarantee scheme for social lending
Open dialogue with HM Treasury on providing support for structures for giving that use existing reliefs.
Do it Now Now’s Chief Exec, Bayo Adelaja shares “our existing work to democratise access to funding resources is a drop in the ocean compared to the need clearly and desperately expressed through the hundreds of expressions of interest and applications we have received and reviewed. More needs to be done.”
Do it Now Now recently held a hackathon to address issues faced by leaders of Black-focused charities and social enterprises - all reported significant roadblocks when trying to access funding. There are much needed policies and long-term commitments that need to be put in place to allow funding to reach communities that face challenges within a system that often disregards the nuance and chronic lack that feature in many Black-led organisations. It is encouraging that more voices are focusing on policy change to correct many of these issues.
Full details of the hackathon will be released in a future report. Sign up to our Centre Black and Common Call newsletters to be the first to know.
Read the full APPG report here.
