Shaping our future funding

City Bridge Foundation has a new ten-year funding policy, called Standing with Londoners.

Our new funding policy, launched in March 2025, will focus on changing the systems that keep people marginalised, while also addressing the issues communities face right now.

We aim to launch the first of our new funding programmes in autumn 2025.

Learn more about our new funding policy using the link below.

As we work towards the launch of our new funding policy, Sam Grimmett-Batt (Funding Director) reflects on the impact of City Bridge Foundation’s recent funding and our future focus.

In recent years we have been able to provide a one-off £200 million uplift, providing vital support to the capital’s charities, which was particularly invaluable in supporting them through the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

As Sam says, London has changed considerably in the last five years, and as a charity we have to evolve to address the issues Londoners face today, and to ensure our funding has maximum impact.

In March 2025 we hope to announce City Bridge Foundation’s new funding policy, which will shape our future as London’s biggest independent funder for the next 10 years.

The new policy will reflect how London has changed due to the significant issues we’ve seen in recent years, with a focus on systems change and tackling the root causes of inequality.

We will also change how we fund, with a more flexible, more relational approach to working with our partners.

In this video, our Chief Funding Director, Sacha Rose-Smith, reflects on what we’ve learned in 30 years as a funder, how we’ve developed our new funding policy and what happens next.

At City Bridge Foundation we aim to be an adaptive, responsive funder. As London’s largest independent funder we support the capital’s charitable sector with more than £30m in grants each year.

To ensure we best meet the future needs of London and Londoners in a rapidly changing world, we are working on a new Future Funding Policy.

This work is being supported by extensive research and policy analysis, evidence gathering, a review of our funding, wide-ranging stakeholder engagement and more.

Our consultation so far has included six events with more than 230 external stakeholders, a survey of over 1,000 Londoners, and more than 15 learning sessions with the City Bridge Foundation team, our Board and Funding Committee.

We have also undertaken a full review of our funding practices and an evaluation of our current funding strategy, Bridging Divides. 

We’re aiming to launch at least one funding programme under the new policy in autumn 2025, with further programmes to follow.

As we work towards a new funding policy, with a first funding programme scheduled to launch in autumn 2025, we have produced a list of Frequently Asked Questions for those interested in the development of this programme.

This update from Sacha Rose-Smith, our Chief Funding Director, provides an overview of the development of the new 10-year funding policy.

Published 4 November 2024

Our consultation event at the Barbican in March 2024 brought together more than 130 participants representing London’s civil society, local and central government, policy and research, the academic sector and more.

Their insights and inputs provided a powerful start to our consultation process. The live event was followed by an online consultation event for those unable to attend the Barbican in person.

This was then followed by Visioning London II sessions with equity-focused organisations in November and December 2024. 

In May 2024 we held a roundtable consultation with a panel of 14 young Londoners, convened by The Prince’s Trust*. We asked for their thoughts on how London could change for the better over the next decade, and the role we might play in that.

* Now The Kings Trust