Funding Strategy 2018–2028

City Bridge Foundation’s funding strategy, Bridging Divides, was launched in 2018. The five-year strategy was agreed by the charity’s governing committee and by our trustee, the City of London Corporation, through the City Corporation’s primary decision-making body, the Court of Common Council.

The strategy was built on input from hundreds of individuals and organisations spanning multiple sectors across London. The consultation included surveys, face-to-face meetings and events.

In May 2022, the charity recommended to its trustee that the funding strategy be extended for a further five years to 2028. City Corporation’s Court of Common Council considered the recommendation and re-committed to the overarching vision and mission of Bridging Divides 2018–2023, agreeing to extend the strategy for a further five years to 2028.

In March 2024, City Bridge Foundation began the process of developing a new 10-year funding policy to replace the Bridging Divides strategy. Our aim is to ensure our funding is targeted where it has the greatest impact.

In October 2024, having committed exceptional levels of funding to London’s charitable sector until 2026, City Bridge Foundation closed all rolling grants programmes to new applications for one year.

A new funding strategy will be launched in autumn 2025. 

Developing the Bridging Divides strategy allowed City Bridge Foundation to carefully consider the increasingly complex social problems the charity tackles; the approaches we take to investing in these matters and the ways in which the charity can use its power and partnerships to make positive change happen. 

The strategy acknowledged that in order for the charity’s work to be effective, City Bridge Foundation must first recognise the following:

• City Bridge Foundation’s funding supports work tackling poverty, disadvantage, need and inequality
• Much of the work City Bridge Foundation funds manages the consequences of these overlapping issues
• City Bridge Foundation can tackle the root causes of these issues more effectively by working with partners across civil society, and public and private sectors 
• Adopting multiple approaches, which are adaptive and reviewed regularly, and making fuller use of both City Bridge Foundation’s funding and the charity’s knowledge and non-monetary resources, will enable the charity to pursue an ambitious strategy successfully

Bridging Divides is a vision and values led strategy. City Bridge Foundation is London’s largest independent charitable funder, and under this strategy all of the work it undertakes will link to its vision for London to be a city where all individuals and communities can thrive, especially those experiencing disadvantage and marginalisation.

City Bridge Foundation will take a ​‘total assets’ approach to achieving this vision, meaning that as well as its funding, the charity will also ensure the best use of its other non-monetary resources. 

These include the links the charity has to civil society, other funders and the wider funding ecology, and the expertise of its trustee the City of London Corporation and their links to local, regional and national government and the private sector. In the strategy, this is referenced as our Funder Plus offer.

Through this strategy, City Bridge Foundation intends to consider the ways in which it can make the most positive impact on reducing inequality and creating cohesive communities, whilst also determining its role in improving the success and resilience of London’s civil society.