Communities Building Economic Change
Core and flexible five-year grants of up to £450,000 for small- and medium-sized, community-rooted organisations tackling economic injustice in London with an annual income of £50,000 to £1.5 million.
Open to applications from 22 September 2026
- Area
- Greater London
- Open to
- Small- to medium-sized organisations rooted in communities experiencing economic injustice, who: (1) provide frontline support services, (2) understand the economic system as the cause of the challenges their communities face, (3) have a track record of working towards longer-term change in one of our three funding priorities
- Duration
- Five years
- Funds available
- Core and flexible, five-year grants of £150,000 to £450,000 for organisations with an annual income of £50,000 to £1.5 million
- Deadline
- 12 noon on Tuesday, 3 November 2026
Funding Guidelines
The following pages cover eligibility, the application process, how to watch our webinar, FAQs, resources, and key dates.
For comprehensive information on our funding offer, including our three funding priorities, please download the Funding Guidelines below.
Communities Building Economic Change
Too many people in London face worsening financial hardship and inequality. Communities are being priced out of their neighbourhoods as wealth and ownership become more concentrated. Austerity and cuts have weakened the public services and infrastructure communities rely on. Incomes often fall short, jobs are insecure or out of reach for many, and debt and arrears are increasingly common.
Tackling economic injustice
Economic injustice disproportionately affects people already facing discrimination and structural disadvantage due to racism, disability, gender, class, migration status, age, health, and other forms of structural exclusion. Those most affected are often the furthest from power and decision-making.
We believe these experiences of economic injustice share common root causes. They are not the result of individual failures but stem from how economic systems are structured and operate, and the ideas and beliefs that sustain them. When we use ‘the economy’ to describe these issues, we refer not only to distant financial systems but also to the policies, practices, and power structures that affect people’s everyday lives and their ability to thrive.
This funding supports organisations working towards a just economy in which all Londoners can live well, participate and have a say in the decisions that affect them.
Economic justice is the fair and equitable distribution of resources, opportunities and economic benefits in society, ensuring that all Londoners – regardless of their background or circumstances – can thrive. This may include approaches to tackling poverty and reducing income and wealth inequality.
We see an economically just London as having three interconnected dimensions:
- Prosperity for all, within ecological limits: all Londoners can access the basics of a dignified life, in housing, healthcare, food security, clean energy and decent work (for those able to work). Economic systems that support fair wages and genuine security rather than treating essentials as assets.
- Economic systems centred on dignity: the growth of alternative economic models that centre people and the planet; new ways of measuring prosperity that focus on wellbeing and reduce harm; and public narratives that recognise the structural roots of poverty and inequality.
- Equitable distribution of economic power and resources: communities having meaningful influence over the economic decisions that shape their lives; the expansion of collective and community ownership of key assets; and those most affected by economic injustice having genuine power to shape solutions.
Community-rooted organisations leading change
We believe community-rooted organisations are best placed to understand the lived realities of economic injustice and what needs to change.
Across London, they provide vital support and solidarity to people at the sharp end of economic injustice, including running community kitchens and food pantries and providing advice. They often combine frontline service delivery with longer-term, systems change work, sometimes without using the language to describe it, and often with insufficient resources to achieve the change they seek.
By this we mean organisations shaped and driven by the communities and people they serve and represent.
A community can be defined as a group who have come together through shared identities, experiences or places. We’d usually consider a ‘place’ to mean a geographic area smaller than a borough. For place-based communities, an organisation’s long-term presence in an area alone will not necessarily suffice as evidence of being community-rooted.
In this round, we are seeking to fund organisations rooted in the communities most affected by economic injustice. We expect to see representation from those experiencing structural exclusion and disadvantage, including racially minoritised people living in London; disabled people; women; refugees and migrants; LGBTQIA+ communities; low-income and working-class communities; and other marginalised communities. Experience of economic injustice is a core requirement for this funding round. When evaluating community-rootedness, we’ll prioritise organisations who can demonstrate:
- Community representation in decision-making structures: meaningful representation in leadership or strategic-level positions, such as board membership and senior staffing roles. Organisations may also use democratic practices such as participatory decision-making and community ownership of assets. Intersectionality will be a key consideration in ensuring a community or experience is meaningfully represented.
Please note that although we will collect percentage-based representation data via the application form, we will not use it as a primary decision-making tool. This data will provide important context for our holistic understanding of a group’s accountability to its community.
- Lived experience shapes work and priorities: lived experience shapes an organisation’s services and strategy for communities, defining their needs and the solutions. This may include meaningful co-production practices.
- Accountability to a community: concrete examples of existing practices and structures that ensure broad and ongoing community accountability, such as community organising, regular community forums, and paid survivor boards. One-off community consultation alone will be insufficient for this funding round.
Lived experience is the knowledge, understanding and insight gained through direct experience of economic injustice and the issues communities face.
We value lived experience because those directly affected by economic injustice often have a unique understanding of the challenges, barriers and opportunities for change within their communities.
We are interested in how organisations ensure that lived experience informs leadership, decision-making, strategy and approaches to change.
The work we want to support
Communities Building Economic Change offers core and flexible funding of up to £450,000 over five years, targeting small- to medium-sized, community-rooted organisations with an income of £50,000 to £1.5 million. Communities Building Economic Change is the first round of our Economic Justice programme.
We’re looking for organisations who understand the lived realities of economic injustice and have a track record of using insights from their frontline service delivery to shape systemic work tackling the causes, in one or more of our three funding priorities:
Funding can cover all activities an organisation delivers, including frontline support and work towards longer-term change within our three funding priorities.
We expect organisations to use flexible funding to support core costs and delivery, as well as services and long-term strategic objectives (rather than solely for individual projects). These costs may include, but are not limited to:
- Core costs, such as staff salaries, wellbeing, training, overheads and infrastructure
- Programme activity, including frontline service provision and the use of insights to inform social action and systems-change work, such as community organising, advocacy, campaigning, and drawing on frontline experience to influence policy and practice
- Organisational development, including time for reflection, learning and adaptation
- Collaboration and movement-building, including connecting with other organisations, sharing insights, building collective power, or participating in our convening activities
We expect organisations to demonstrate at least two years’ evidence of working with communities affected by economic injustice and to already use frontline insights, lived experience and community knowledge to inform work that seeks longer-term change.
This funding round is not intended for organisations who wish to begin economic justice work in the future but are not yet doing so.
Priority one
Building shared understanding of the economy (and what needs to change)
Creating space for people experiencing economic injustice to understand its root causes and to work collaboratively to challenge the systems that cause it.
This work could include community education, workshops, organising, or demonstrating viable alternative economic approaches. For example:
- A community benefit society set up by traders on a struggling local high street, delivering solidarity, support and advice to peers facing rising rents and the prospect of being pushed out. They bring the neighbourhood together to understand why this is happening, decide collectively what they want their high street to become, and present that plan to decision-makers.
Systems change refers to approaches that address the root causes of social issues by shifting the conditions that drive inequality. These conditions may include policies, practices, resource flows, relationships, connections, power dynamics and mental models.
In an economic justice context, systems change means addressing the root causes of economic inequality by shifting the policies, practices, power dynamics, relationships and narratives that shape people’s lives. It goes beyond short-term fixes and invests in the long-term capacity of the most affected communities to influence and transform the systems around them.
While we recognise there are many types of systems-change work, in the first year of this programme we are funding systems-change activity within one of our three funding priorities. It may not be labelled economic change or systems-change work, but we see it as work that tackles the root causes of economic injustice.
Priority two
Securing the basics everyone needs
Protecting, restoring and improving access to the essentials for living well, from housing and healthcare to food, energy, care and decent work.
This work goes beyond service delivery and could include organising, campaigning, advocacy and communications to drive change. For example:
- A Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisation (DDPO) running a range of services and social activities. In recent years, they’ve been campaigning against cuts to disability welfare benefits and changes to PIP assessments after witnessing the harm caused to members.
Priority three
Giving communities more power
Helping communities gain greater control over the decisions, land, buildings, businesses and services that shape their lives.
This work could include helping communities build, share, and retain power, ownership, and influence through democratic participation, collective ownership, and community-focused initiatives. For example:
- A group of young South Asian mothers from a low-income community have set up a Community Interest Company (CIC) to provide affordable, inclusive childcare for their families and others, and are organising to secure a long-term lease for their venue to ensure its continued operation.
Note to applicants
The kind of work you’re doing is more important to us than its breadth. Your work can span several priorities and areas of London, or focus on a single priority and a small part of London. It doesn’t need to cover all priorities or be new work. Core and flexible funding can support your organisation’s wider work, including staffing, overheads and running costs across the activities or projects you deliver.
Please read our downloadable Funding Guidelines for more in-depth explanations and examples of all our criteria (including eligibility and our three funding priorities).
How much you can apply for
We’re offering core and flexible grants of up to £450,000 over five years to small- to medium-sized, community-rooted organisations with an annual income of £50,000 to £1.5 million.
Total funds available: up to £6 million. We expect to award approximately 20–25 grants.
- £150,000 over five years (£30,000 a year)
- £200,000 over five years (£40,000 a year)
- £300,000 over five years (£60,000 a year)
- £450,000 over five years (£90,000 a year)
Notes to applicants
You’ll indicate your preferred amount during the application. If shortlisted, we’ll agree on the most appropriate amount with you at Stage 2. Although we expect to offer fixed amounts, we may vary them on a case-by-case basis to meet your organisation’s needs.
The £1.5 million income threshold is the upper limit, based on your most recent annual accounts. If your income is higher in this year or does not reflect the scale of your operations (e.g. through onward grant-making or a large capital award for a specific ringfenced activity), book a call with us to discuss your eligibility. We accept only one application per organisation per round, whether submitted in partnership or independently.
Webinar
A pre-application webinar with our funding team took place on Tuesday 15 September 2026.
In the webinar we introduced Communities Building Economic Change and shared insights into our approach, the fund eligibility, who we’re looking to support, and the application process.
We welcomed questions during a Q&A session following the presentation. These are not included in the recording but relevant questions will be reflected in our FAQs.
If you didn’t attend the webinar it is strongly advised that you view our recording of the webinar before submitting an application.
If useful, you can also download the slides which we used during the webinar presentation.
Eligibility
We’re looking forward to receiving applications from small- to medium-sized, community-rooted organisations tackling economic injustice in London.
To apply for Communities Building Economic Change, your organisation must meet all THREE eligibility criteria for the first round of the Economic Justice programme, listed below:
- Funding priorities – have a track record of working towards longer-term systemic change in one or more of our three funding priorities below:
I) Building shared understanding of the economy (and what needs to change)
II) Securing the basics everyone needs
III) Giving communities more power - Fund eligibility – be a small- to medium-sized community-rooted organisation delivering frontline services
- General eligibility – align with our City Bridge Foundation criteria including being an eligible organisation type, delivering charitable work that benefits Londoners, and meeting our governance and safeguarding requirements
To check whether your organisation is the right fit for this round, please complete the Eligibility Checker below. If your organisation is eligible, the final question will provide a link to our Application Portal when applications open on Tuesday 22 September.
Fund eligibility
In addition to working within one or more of our three funding priorities, your organisation must meet the fund criteria below.
Your organisation must:
- Be a small- to medium-sized organisation with an annual income between £50,000 and £1.5 million. If your organisation’s income is higher in this year or does not reflect the scale of your operations (e.g. through onward grant-making or a large capital award for a specific ringfenced activity), we recommend booking a call with us to discuss.
- Be deeply rooted in communities experiencing high levels of economic injustice: your organisation is shaped and driven by communities and people with significant experience of economic injustice.
- Provide practical frontline services or meeting-needs support for your communities, such as food provision, advice-giving, and running services or activities.
- Work towards longer-term change, underpinned by an understanding that the way economic systems are organised and operate creates the issues and needs your communities face, for example, through the design of welfare policies or the operation of the housing system.
- Already use frontline insight from your meeting needs work to inform or develop work in one or more of our three funding priorities: 1) Building shared understanding of the economy (and what needs to change), 2) Securing the basics everyone needs, 3) Giving communities more power
- Be able to demonstrate a track record of at least two years’ experience in your systemic work in one or more of our funding priorities.
- Be interested and willing to participate in connecting and learning work with City Bridge Foundation, other funded organisations and wider networks.
Intersectionality will be a key consideration in ensuring a community or experience is meaningfully represented.
Intersectionality recognises that people can experience multiple, overlapping forms of inequality, discrimination and exclusion simultaneously.
For example, a person may experience economic injustice alongside other forms of structural disadvantage.
Economic injustice does not affect everyone equally. It often interacts with other inequalities, shaping how people experience poverty, access opportunities, participate in decision-making, and exercise power.
General eligibility
In addition to aligning with our three funding priorities and eligibility criteria, your organisation must also meet our general eligibility, governance, and safeguarding requirements and benefit Londoners through charitable work.
We fund the following organisation types:
- A charity established and registered in the UK
- A registered charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
- A charitable company – an organisation that is both a limited company (usually a company limited by guarantee) and a registered charity
- A registered charitable Industrial and Provident Society (IPS)
- A charitable community benefit society (BenCom) – registered with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and set up to benefit the wider community
- A Community Interest Company (CIC) – limited by guarantee with at least three directors
- A Constituted Voluntary Organisation (CVO) – with a fiscal host as the named applicant
(Charities with an annual income of £5,000 or more are required to register with the Charity Commission.)
Your organisation must also:
- Deliver work that benefits people living in London, including those in one or more of the 32 London boroughs and/or the City of London. We cannot fund work delivered outside London or for people living elsewhere.
- Pay at least the London Living Wage, as set by the Living Wage Foundation (£14.80 per hour from April 2026), to all London-based staff, or commit to doing so after receiving our grant. We do not require organisations to be accredited by the Living Wage Foundation.
- Provide at least one year’s audited or independently examined accounts and an up-to-date safeguarding policy that is regularly reviewed.
- Ensure the board has at least three directors or trustees (persons legally responsible for running the company and ensuring its compliance with the law).
- Where formal advice services are provided, hold the appropriate accreditation for this work, such as the Advice Quality Standard (AQS) for organisations providing social welfare advice across areas including housing, welfare benefits, debt, employment, and immigration. This does not apply to signposting people to other appropriate services or advice, or to advice services provided on an organisation’s premises by an external (accredited) partner.
Further information on advice accreditation is available in our downloadable Funding Guidelines.
Some organisations and types of work are ineligible for funding, including individuals, schools, statutory bodies, political parties, non-charitable activities, retrospective costs, and work that does not benefit residents of Greater London.
Please use the Eligibility Checker above or review our General eligibility and exclusions on our website for guidance on who and what we can and cannot fund.
- You’re not deeply rooted in communities experiencing economic injustice:
o Communities are consulted or engaged but are not meaningfully represented in decision-making structures or in positions of power at governance and staffing levels
o You cannot demonstrate strong accountability or explain how your communities shape organisational or work priorities
o Your community does not have significant experience of economic injustice
- You focus only on providing services, advice, or meeting immediate needs, without using insights from this work to inform systemic change through organising, campaigning, or demonstrating alternative approaches.
- You cannot demonstrate how your work is shaped by the understanding that the challenges and economic injustice your communities experience are caused by the way economic systems are organised and operate:
o Your work focuses solely on addressing immediate symptoms and does not consider how wider systems, structures, policies, power dynamics or economic conditions contribute to the challenges your communities face - Your work towards achieving longer-term systemic change does not align with one or more of our three funding priorities.
- You wish to begin this work in the future but are not already doing it or cannot demonstrate a track record of at least two years:
o This funding round is for organisations already using frontline insights and community knowledge to inform work that contributes to one or more of our three funding priorities.
o While we recognise that others may wish to start working in this way, this first round focuses resources on those with an existing track record. From this first year, we hope to learn about the conditions and resources needed to do this work, which will help inform future funding rounds. - You would rather not take part in the programme’s connecting and learning aspects.
Notes to applicants
Partnership applications
We accept partnership applications where one lead organisation is responsible for the grant, delivery, reporting and compliance, including any funding passed to partners. We can accept only one funding application per organisation, whether submitted as part of a partnership or its own.
Funded organisations
If you’re a funded organisation, you may still apply, though we may prioritise organisations new to us or those we have not funded recently. If you’re receiving long-term core funding, such as through our Access to Justice or Propel programmes, we’re unlikely to prioritise you. If you’re unsure, please book a call with us.
Applying with a fiscal host
A Constituted Voluntary Organisation (CVO) can apply only through a fiscal host, which must submit the application, provide formal accounts, hold the grant, and meet all due diligence, financial, and grant requirements. The applying CVO must also meet the fund criteria.
You’ll find more information on partnerships, eligibility and examples in our downloadable Funding Guidelines
If you have questions, please book a pre-application phone call. We will share a link here when we open to applications on 22 September 2026.
We anticipate a high volume of applications that will likely exceed available funding. When making decisions, we’ll assess applications as part of a wider balanced portfolio, considering geographic distribution; support for a range of communities; places and experiences; how the overall portfolio reflects the diversity of London’s communities; and the fund’s priorities.
Our internal balancing criteria across all applications:
1. Alignment to criteria and funding priorities
- How well the organisation’s work aligns with our three funding priorities
- The extent to which the organisation is community-rooted (how the communities affected by economic injustice shape the organisation’s work, priorities and decision-making)
- A clear analysis showing that the way economic systems are organised and operate creates the issues and needs faced by the organisation’s communities
- The strength of the connection between frontline insight and the longer-term change the organisation is trying to achieve
- The credibility and maturity of the organisation’s approach to achieving change, including a two-year track record
2. Contribution to a balanced portfolio
- Representation across the three funding priorities
- A balance of approaches to achieving economic systems change, such as advocacy, campaigning, narrative change, community ownership, community wealth building and democratic participation
- Opportunities for learning, collaboration and strengthening the wider economic justice ecosystem
3. Communities, geographies and lived experience
- Reaching communities experiencing significant economic injustice across London
- Supporting a range of communities, places and experiences
- Considering how the overall portfolio reflects the diversity of London’s communities
City Bridge Foundation prides itself on an open and trusting approach to grant management.
We’re committed to working towards a more economically just London for everyone who lives here. We believe that achieving long-term change requires many organisations and communities to work together over time.
We think we can best help build this strengthened ‘economic justice ecosystem’ by supporting organisations to connect and work together, and to identify and move towards shared goals. To do this, we expect organisations to participate in learning, connecting and convening activities with us (and other organisations with similar goals).
Activities will provide spaces for connection, peer learning and support, insight sharing and the development of new approaches. We’ll shape activities in collaboration with the organisations we fund.
We recognise that organisations often have limited time and resources to step back from day-to-day delivery and undertake this learning, convening and connecting work. We hope to enable this through core funding.
We ask applicants to carefully consider whether they are genuinely interested in and able to commit to participating, as participation is a key part of the programme.
Fund timeline
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Full funding information goes live including our approach, fund eligibility, who we’re looking to support, and how to apply 14 September 2026
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Live webinar 12 noon to 1pm. We’ll publish slides and a recording on the webinar page shortly after the event. 15 September 2026
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Applications open, and pre-application phone calls open for booking (12 noon) 22 September 2026
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Pre-application phone calls available 25 September 2026
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Last chance to book a pre-application phone call (5pm) 27 October 2026
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Pre-application calls close 29 October 2026
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Applications close (12 noon) 3 November 2026
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Applicants are notified whether their application will progress to Stage 2 assessment and visits. 11 January 2027
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Stage 2 assessment and visits 28 February 2027
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Final decisions and applicants are notified of the outcome. 16 March 2027
Review our application stages Flowchart in our downloadable Funding Guidelines for more information.
How to apply
Applications open on Tuesday 22 September 2026.
Before you apply, please use our Eligibility Checker to confirm whether your organisation is eligible for this funding round. If your organisation is eligible, the final question will include a link to our Application Portal when we open to applications on Tuesday 22 September 2026.
Before you start your application
- Use our Eligibility Checker
- Read our downloadable Funding Guidelines
- Check that your work aligns with this fund’s priorities
- Watch the webinar or webinar recording
- If needed, book a pre-application phone call. Calls are available from Friday 25 September to Thursday 29 October 2026 (calls close at 12 noon).
What happens next
We’ll contact organisations about Stage 1 assessments by Monday 11 January 2027. We’ll visit all Stage 2 organisations by the end of February 2027. We expect to make final decisions by Tuesday 16 March 2027.
Please visit our How to apply page for the latest information on our application process, decision-making stages, accessibility, account creation, support, and our AI policy.
We expect more applications than there is funding available. When making decisions, we’ll assess applications as part of a wider balanced portfolio, considering geographic distribution; support for a range of communities, places and experience; how the overall portfolio reflects the diversity of London’s communities; and the fund’s priorities.
Accessibility and support
We’re committed to an accessible application process. If you need an alternative format or accessibility support, please contact funding@citybridgefoundation.org.uk or call 020 7332 3710 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm) and we’ll work with you to find a solution.
Resources
We supply a range of downloadable documents and links for applicants in accessible formats.
Downloadable Funding Guidelines
Use our downloadable Sample application form in Word if you prefer to write your application offline first. Please note that we accept applications only through our Application Portal — which will go live at 12 noon on Tuesday 22 September 2026.
Review our downloadable Instructions for applicants for step-by-step guidance on applying through our Application Portal.
We’ll ask for documentation as part of the application process. Please check our Supporting documents guidance page for a list of what we’ll need.
Watch our webinar or a recording of our webinar or review our slides in our Webinar section (from Wednesday 16 September 2026).
Book a pre-application phone call to discuss your eligibility (from 22 September). Please visit our Pre-application phone calls guidance page for further information about how these calls work. Pre-application calls close at 12 noon on 29 October 2026.
For updates on future funding rounds and programmes, please check our Funding page regularly or sign up to our newsletter.
FAQs
This page hosts key questions and answers about Communities Building Economic Change, which opens on Tuesday 22 September 2026.
Check this section regularly for answers to questions as the fund progresses. From 22 September you can also book a pre-application phone call for further guidance.
The application deadline is 12 noon on Tuesday 3 November 2026.