Changes to our funding
This archived page relates to the closure of five of our funding programmes to new applications on Wednesday 3 July 2024.
Changes to our grant programmes
City Bridge Foundation has been able to offer a considerable uplift of £200m in funding to London’s charitable sector in recent years. As this additional funding tapers down, and as we research and shape our future funding policy, five of our funding programmes will close to new applications in July 2024.
- Published: 19 June 2024
Update: Closure of our rolling grants programmes to new applications and the launch of a new funding policy
Having committed exceptional levels of funding to London’s charitable sector until 2026, we closed our rolling grants programmes to new applications in October 2024.
This has allowed us to manage our existing grants and pre-closure applications, while reviewing and developing our new funding policy.
Our new ten-year funding policy, Standing with Londoners, launched in March 2025.
Due to a review of the Foundation’s reserves position in 2019/20, we were fortunate to have an additional £200m available for grant-funding to be spread over multiple years. This came at a crucial time with the impact of the pandemic and cost of living crisis hitting Londoners. It meant we could do much more to support the sector in extraordinary circumstances.
We have now committed much of those additional funds and will gradually approve the use of the remainder to return to normal levels of grant spending by 2027. Closing five of our 14 programmes to new applications will help us do this. Existing grant holders will not be affected and will continue to receive their funding as normal.
On Wednesday, 3 July 2024 at 12pm (noon), we are closing the following programmes to new applications: Support and Services for Older People, Support for children and young people, Mental health services, Voice and Leadership, and Increasing the quality and scale of giving.
We will be inviting existing grant holders within those five programmes to apply for fast track one year continuation funding (subject to certain eligibility criteria). This will hopefully provide some stability and continuity for those organisations we already fund.
These closures do not mean we will not fund in these areas in the future — it will be dependent on our new funding policy. This will be launched in autumn 2025 and we will share more about our plans over the coming months.
We understand the acute need for funding in the sector and continue to provide significant support across nine programmes, some of which funds work that is relevant to these five areas, including: tackling abuse, exploitation and hatred, for migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, advice and food poverty and our small grants scheme.
City Bridge Foundation continues to be London’s largest independent funder. We remain committed to supporting organisations working to tackle inequality and to making London a fairer place.
For more information see: Questions and answers: changes to our funding