Institute For Voluntary Action Research

🆕 Briefing - Act with urgency: How Open and Trusting Grant-making benefits funders and charities alike In an increasingly turbulent and challenging environment, where there is high and growing demand for both charities’ services and foundations’ funding, everyone feels under pressure. In this context, it is a privilege to coordinate the Open and Trusting community, bringing charities and grantmakers together to reflect, push each other and learn. Our work centres on one simple question: how can we do our best for the communities and causes we serve?    During the autumn of 2024, 105 funders were held to account by charity leaders for their progress on the eight commitments they sign up to as part of the Open and Trusting community. This briefing re-introduces Open and Trusting Grant-making, sharing the latest thinking following a period of reflection and accountability, and covers some key points that are helping to inform our future direction. Read the briefing here: https://lnkd.in/eZ2s62GK

📣 IVAR and CAST: Bridging the charity / funder gap, to drive insight-led AI adoption   It is increasingly clear to us that informed adoption and worthwhile use of AI will require stronger connection between excellent funder practices, better knowledge sharing to inform charities’ practice, and a louder voice for civil society in conversations about AI that affect communities. To contribute to this, we’re delighted to announce that we’re joining forces with CAST to strengthen lines of communication and connection across and between charities and grantmakers - with the ultimate aim of empowering more confident, robust and well-informed responses to AI across the board.    As Kamna Muralidharan, Chair of Trustees, IVAR and Gaia Ines Fassò, Chair of the CAST Board, explain:   “At IVAR and CAST, we recognise the operating environment for charities at the frontline of multiple crises we face is incredibly challenging. Our work centring charities exposes how important the funding experience is to progress on social change. This collaboration is a response to what we can see as an emerging need and to mitigate against charities’ voices being left out of influencing how both they and grant makers shape, use and are shaped by AI.”   This partnership builds on our earlier work together: https://lnkd.in/ekEu4kPR, and comes at a time where there is increasing urgency in creating more collective responses to AI. Working together over the next few months – supported by IVAR’s Research Development – we will:   🔹 Capture stories/insight from CAST’s Digital Leads Network (DLN) (https://lnkd.in/eJ3qWGsh) so that charities (and smaller charities in particular) are supported to adopt/adapt and use AI 🔹 Capture insight into what helps and what hinders informed adoption and worthwhile use of AI 🔹 Share stories/insight within and between the DLN and the AI for Grantmakers peer group, to inform each other’s practice 🔹 Feed insight from both groups into the Charity AI Task Force (https://lnkd.in/et9NvPVC). Read more here: https://lnkd.in/esUw33ZJ CAST Centre for the Acceleration of Social Technology

Full Cost Recovery is Flexible Funding Commitment 6 of Open and Trusting Grant-making is ‘Enable Flexibility’. Much of the discussion about flexibility concentrates on multiyear unrestricted funding – ‘the holy grail’. But there are other ways to skin the flexible cat. As funders continue to explore ways to make their funding more flexible, we look back at some insights from two members of the Open and Trusting Community, hearing their thoughts on the approaches they have adopted and how their experiences could help inspire others to go further. In the first of two blogs, Ciaran Rafferty, Director of The Hilden Charitable Fund makes the case for Full Cost Recovery, where funders consider the true cost of delivering projects, suggesting that it should become the norm (especially if unrestricted funding is not possible), helping give smaller organisations what they need to thrive. Read the blog here https://lnkd.in/evjEuCGK In the second blog, Nick Addington - Chief Executive at William Grant Foundation discusses two practical ideas to ’increase the unrestricted funding flowing from funders to the third sector’. Read the blog here https://lnkd.in/e3cx5T8a

Encouraging to see an Open and Trusting funder commit to actions that matter most to charities. Find out about the 10 actions that matter most to charities here https://lnkd.in/e-b82xdU

“The wellbeing grants responded to an unspoken but recognised need, sending the message it is okay to prioritise wellbeing. The grant felt significant to charities that had been struggling with workforce wellbeing. It provided them with an opportunity to focus on solutions without having to justify the money or time to themselves or stakeholders.” A great example of a funder being responsive, thoughtful and imaginative about its support for funded organisations. Given what we are hearing about the mental health crisis in small organisations, perhaps other funders could take a leaf out of Tudor’s book: Vic Hancock Fell https://lnkd.in/dhDskskY

In case you missed it: In a recent Leading in Uncertainty session, a charity leader asked ‘how can we remain hopeful, when everything is so terrible?’ Part of the answer lies in attending to and supporting wellbeing – which is much easier to do if you can pay for it. Here’s one way that can be possible. In 2020, The Tudor Trust offered all their grantees an additional £2,000 to support staff, volunteer and trustee wellbeing. This blog sets out 6 things The Tudor Trust learned from these wellbeing grants, and how they did it, in addition to some thought-provoking insights from grant holders who shared their thoughts on how funders could better support wellbeing. Read the blog here: https://lnkd.in/e-cxGTEe Find out how the organisations spent the grants here: https://lnkd.in/examRZmF

Applications are now open for Sounddelivery Media’s Spokesperson Network programme. They’re looking for 14 new leaders who will be united in using their lived experience to create a positive change in and for their communities. Find out more, and apply to the programme below and please spread the word. Applications close 21st March https://lnkd.in/ecjghqTU

We are pleased to share some new research exploring the barriers male asylum seekers in the UK face when accessing mental health support while living in temporary hotel accommodations. This research has been carried out by Ernest James Ulaya and Mildred Nanteza who are recipients of the Jane Hatfield Award. Launched in 2022 in partnership with The Ubele Initiative, The Jane Hatfield Award is an annual grant to support the next generation of researchers to investigate issues or topics related to community, social action and/or social justice. You can find out more about this initiative by visiting https://lnkd.in/e-hrWekV Read the full report here 🔗 https://lnkd.in/etDJ929S

🆕 Blog: How can Polarity Management help navigate complexity in partnership working?   Tackling complex problems requires us to work in partnership across sectors, but balancing each individual's priorities or 'polarities' can be tricky. Polarity Management is a tool that can help by recognising and enabling the need to balance competing values and priorities when trying to meet a common goal, and by doing so, partnerships can have deeper discussions, develop balanced solutions, and navigate the complexities of working together, encouraging a more open-minded approach where diverse perspectives can thrive. We recently convened another session of our Champions Network, which brought together cross-sector leaders from Dudley, East Sussex, North Yorkshire, St Helens, Wandsworth and Wirral to explore navigating complexities as cross-sector partnerships using Polarity Management to encourage inclusive solutions. This blog discusses examples of polarities and looks into how and when polarity management can be used. Read the blog here... https://lnkd.in/ey9kWr2s

There are two weeks left to get nominations in for this year’s Sheila McKechnie Foundation National Campaigner Awards 2025. For more information visit https://lnkd.in/eJku7nHf