Who our funding is reaching 2023

Using the categories identified in the DEI Data Standard, we ask organisations about the communities the work supports, their leadership, and their mission. This report focuses on communities the work supports and the organisation's leadership. We have also focused on our grant funding rather than social investment.

This isn't a complete picture. We don't yet have DEI data for all our funding and there may be some over- or under-reporting of organisations identified as being led by a specific group and/or organisations supporting a specific community. Learn more about the data and what we're doing to improve the information we collect.

Grants awarded in 2023

The information reflects DEI data submitted from 202 grants, totalling £41.6m (89% of 227 grants awarded in 2023).

Chart 1 looks at grants awarded in terms of leadership across our strategic aims: A Fairer Future; Creative, Confident Communities; and Our Natural World. It also shows grants we made to support infrastructure organisations working across all our aims, which are shown as 'A Sector Fit for the Future'.

• A Fairer Future: 76% of grants made in this aim were awarded to 'led by' organisations (63 of 83 grants). There was also a higher proportion of grants made to 'led by' organisations compared to other aims, reflecting A Fairer Future's focus on the intersections of inequity and our racial, gender and migrant justice priorities.
• Creative, Confident Communities: 40.5% of grants made in this aim were awarded to 'led by' organisations (17 of 42 grants). We know that led by organisations play a critical role in leading change across their communities beyond their own lived experience and we are learning a lot from them. We are also working to embed DEI as a cross-cutting commitment across our work.
• Our Natural World: 19.7% of grants made in this aim were awarded to 'led by' organisations (13 of 66 grants). Over the last few years, we have been more proactive in tackling the lack of diversity in the environment sector, and supporting more environment organisations led by economically and culturally minoritised communities. In 2023, we made 3 grants to organisations led by communities experiencing racial inequity.
• A Sector Fit for the Future: 45.5% of grants made towards this area of our work were to 'led by' organisations (5 of 11 grants). Our funding in this area is by invitation only and focuses on work that enables a stronger, more inclusive and innovative sector.

Chart 2 looks at grants awarded by both the leadership of the organisations, and by the communities they support. The data is broken down into the following categories, which may intersect: communities experiencing racial inequity, disabled people, educational or economic disadvantage, LGBT+ people, migrants, older/younger people, women and girls, and no specific group.

• Leadership: 48.5% of organisations are led by people who face structural inequity as a result of their identity or lived experience. The specific categories with the highest number of 'led by' organisations are: women and girls (20.8%), communities experiencing racial inequity (18.8%), and migrants (13.4%).
• Communities supported: overall, 44.1% of our funding supports people who face structural inequity as a result of their identity or lived experience. Specific communities with a higher percentage of our funding include communities experiencing racial inequity (23.3%), those identifying as educationally and economically disadvantaged (16.8%), migrants (13.9%), and women and girls (12.9%).
• Women and Girls: a higher proportion of organisations are led by women and girls (20.8%) than specifically support women and girls (12.9%). This shows that a number of organisations are incidentally led by women, rather than ‘led by and for’ women and girls. This is the only category where that is the case and explains why, when looking at the overall results for leadership and communities supported, the proportion for 'led by' organisations is higher.
• Educationally and economically disadvantaged: there is a notable disparity in this category where 16.8% of grants we made support this group, but only 4.5% are led by people identifying as educationally and economically disadvantaged. There is also a disparity in the older/younger people category, but this is to be expected as young people are not likely to hold the majority of leadership positions.
• Communities experiencing racial inequity and LGBT+ people: although the difference is smaller, the percentage of organisations led by people identifying as these categories is smaller than those that support communities identifying as the same category.
• Disabled people and Migrants: there is no difference or a minimal difference between leadership and communities supported for these categories.

Applications decided in 2023

The information reflects DEI data submitted from 1,147 applications (94% of 1220 applications given a decision in 2023).

Chart 3 looks at applications decided focusing on the organisation's leadership and the communities supported. The data is broken down by the same categories as those in chart 2.

• Leadership compared to communities supported: trends in applications decided are similar to grants awarded. Women and girls is the only specific group where there are more 'led by' organisations than 'led by and for'. The biggest difference in leadership compared to communities supported is for educationally and economically disadvantaged: 27.3 % of applications support people who are educationally and economically disadvantaged, but only 6.2% of applications are led by the same community.
• Applications compared to grants awarded: we get a higher proportion of applications from organisations supporting older/younger people (23.3%) compared to grants awarded for the same category (10.9%). There is a similar trend in the disabled people category: 15.2% of applications were from organisations led by and for disabled people, compared to 8.4% of grants awarded to organisations led by and for disabled people.

Grants awarded to 'led by' organisations by size

Chart 4 looks at the size of grants awarded to 'led by' organisations, which are shown as the pink dots. Grants awarded to organisations who aren't led by a specific group are shown as grey dots for comparison.

• In general, the spread of grants to 'led by' organisations by size is similar to grants to organisations who are not led by a specific group.
• Most of the grants awarded to 'led by' organisations (65 of 98 grants) were between £90,000 and £250,000.
• Two of our biggest grants in 2023 were to organisations identifying as being 'led by'. They include a £1.5m grant over three years to Baobab Foundation, a member-led funder that aims to support, grow, and strengthen groups and organisations led by and serving Black and Global Majority people across the UK.

Grants awarded to 'led by' organisations by application route

We receive the majority of applications through our open application process where organisations submit an expression of interest through our website. We also work proactively to invite applications from organisations who we think are a strong fit for our strategy. They may be organisations we learn about through our work, or organisations we have funded seeking a follow-on grant.

Chart 5 looks at the number of grants awarded to 'led by' organisations, focusing on the application route taken: open application process vs invited or follow-on grant. You can also see the number of grants awarded to organisations not led by a specific group for comparison.

• Overall, the data shows that grants awarded to 'led by' organisations are spread across both application routes.
• Open application process: 57.6% of grants we awarded through this route were to 'led by' organisations (34 grants compared to 25 grants to organisations not led by a specific group).
• Invited or follow-on grant: 44.8% of grants awarded through this route were to 'led by' organisations (64 grants compared to 79 grants to organisations not led by a specific group).

Grants awarded by region and UK country

Chart 6 shows the spread of grants awarded by region and country in the UK.

• Most of our grants support work spanning multiple regions or countries: 37% support UK-wide work and 9.7% support work in more than one UK country
• England: 37% support work in England, nearly half of which went towards England-wide work or work in more than one English region.
• Scotland: 7.9% support work in Scotland, totalling £3.5m.
• Wales: 5.7% support work in Wales, totalling £2.4m. Over half of the grants awarded in Wales were through our Blue Spaces - Wales initiative.
• Northern Ireland: 2.6% support work in Northern Ireland, totalling £1.4m.

Our active grants at a glance

Charts 7 and 8 reflect data from 599 active grants with DEI data, which is 84% of our portfolio (715 grants). They show the number of grants to organisations led by a specific group and the number of grants that went to organisations that support a specific community.

• Leadership of the organisations we fund: 46.6% said they were led by a specific group. The category with the highest percentage of organisations identifying as being 'led by' is women and girls, with 21.7% of our active grants.
• Communities the work supports: a slightly higher percentage, 47.7%, said they supported a specific community.
• Lived experience: other lived experiences people have included in the DEI data they submitted include: care experience, modern slavery/trafficking, criminal justice system, and violence/exploitation.