Grants Plus

Through our 'Grants Plus' programme we provide a range of support to grantee organisations, to run alongside a grant.  By identifying and providing the extra help an organisation might need at a difficult or opportune moment.  We want to enable their work to have a greater impact, to make our money go further, and to make more of a difference as a Foundation.

Examples of Grants Plus support include providing expert advice - e.g. on business planning, financial management, communications and evaluation.  We have a pool of experts whose work we recommend, but also fund organisations directly to work with consultants they know and trust.

We also make the meeting rooms in our office available for free hire to our grantees as part of Grants Plus.

In 2011, working with Champollion, we worked with a range of grantees on communications issues through our Grants Plus programme - two examples of this support are below.

Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation (IKWRO)

In December 2011 IKWRO held the 'True Honour Awards', the first awards of their kind, dedicated to celebrating those who work to combat honour-based violence in the UK.  In order to draw attention to the awards and highlight honour-based crime as an issue in the UK,  IKWRO, with our support, commissioned communications agency Champollion to develop a media strategy which would deliver national media coverage.

Champollion worked with them to develop a story around the number of honour-based crimes reported in the UK and the story was given to the BBC as an exclusive.  It featured throughout the day on the BBC News Channel, Five Live and Radio One, and ran as the front-page story on the BBC news website.

It was picked up regionally and internationally, generating national debate around honour-based violence and helping to establish IKWRO as a leading organisation working on this issue.  Subsequently, IKWRO has been invited to the Home Office to brief advisers and civil servants, and has met with a special adviser to the Prime Minister on the criminalisation of forced marriage.

Living Streets

Living Streets wanted to maximise the impact of their new three-year campaign to create 'streets for people'.  The campaign aims to make the public more aware of the need for safe, attractive and enjoyable streets and to equip them with the tools to make this happen, as well as working to achieve policy change locally and nationally.  Champollion supported the charity to develop a narrative and key messages for the campaign, to draft a media strategy which would engage audiences in why streets matter, and made recommendations on how to integrate supporter recruitment.

The campaign launched in early 2011 with a focus on walking-friendly neighbourhoods and was a success, generating major media attention and hundreds of new supporters taking campaign actions.