Feedback from our funded organisations: November 2024 – January 2025

City Bridge Foundation has a dedicated Impact and Learning team who review feedback from our funded organisations every three months.

This feedback has been received through GrantAdvisor and our Impact & Learning forms, which we ask funded organisations to fill in once a year, and at the end of each grant. Learning visits can also contribute, although these are currently paused. 

The feedback suggests areas where we’re doing well, and other areas where we can do better, and helps us learn how best to support our funded organisations, and the current challenges facing the charitable sector.

Our latest feedback relates to the months of November 2024 – January 2025. This is after our rolling grants programme had closed to new applications and before our new Standing with Londoners funding policy was launched. 

Along with more than 100 other grant-makers we have signed up to IVAR’s eight commitments to funding organisations in an open and trusting way. 

This is how our funded organisations are rating us against the eight commitments. The figures in brackets show our average score from the three previous quarters. 

• We don’t waste your time — 97% (98%)
• We ask relevant questions — 98% (95%)
• We accept our share of the risk — 95% (87%)
• We act with urgency — 86% (82%)
• We are transparent about decisions — 95% (89%)
• We respond flexibly to changes — 98% (88%)
• We are clear about our relationship — 96% (94%)
• Our reporting is light-touch — 98% (95%)

Median application times in recent years:

• 2024: 6 hours
• 2023: 10 hours
• 2021: 19 hours

We know that making applications takes precious time. We are streamlining our application and assessment processes to be faster, more efficient and more inclusive. 

Webinars and pre-application calls will ensure applicants are better briefed before they apply. Application forms will have fewer questions, which will be more focussed. 

By introducing a two-stage assessment process, we will reduce the burden on stage one applicants who are unsuccessful.

One applicant said that improvements were needed to make our application portal more accessible. This feedback also applied to the Word version of the application form that applicants can download. This allows applicants to prepare an application before using the portal. 

Another applicant suggested that some of the available responses on multiple-choice IVAR questions could be confusing. These are questions we include in our Impact & Learning forms. 

Timely feedback on funding applications was another issue, with some applicants waiting longer than they would have wished for. 

We’re working to ensure our application portal conforms with the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 to ensure the best possible experience for all applicants. 

The latest downloadable Word versions of our application forms are also designed to be fully accessible. 

If anyone finds they face barriers in using our website, application portal or any other content, we welcome their feedback. Please get in touch using our contact us webpage. 

We’ve updated the available responses on the multiple-choice questions on our Impact & Learning forms, and we’ve shared the feedback with IVAR. 

As we roll out our new Standing with Londoners funding policy we are streamlining our application and assessment processes to be faster, more efficient and more inclusive. A faster, two-stage assessment process will also reduce the burden on unsuccessful stage one applicants. 

Feedback included: 

• Positive and supportive relationship with City Bridge Foundation
• Appreciation for the clear communication, transparency, and flexibility of Funding Managers
• Appreciation for the reporting process, which is seen as light-touch and straightforward
• Gratitude for the funding and support provided, which has enabled organisations to deliver impactful work

Grant recipients have the opportunity to offer feedback on how we could better support them. This feedback is from 171 funded organisations, who responded between November 2024 and January 2025.

• Capacity building (81 mentions) training and workshops on topics such as fundraising, digital skills support with leadership development.
• Application and funding process (51 mentions) faster decision-making timelines, clearer eligibility criteria and clearer funding priorities.
• Trust and relationship (22 mentions) regular check-ins and feedback loops to build trust.
• Networking and collaboration (19 mentions) more sector-specific networking events.
• Reporting and evaluation (14 mentions) support in measuring and demonstrating impact. 

Our online Spotlight Talks provide opportunities to learn and to network. Some are only available to funded organisations, others are open to the wider sector. 

Since this feedback was received, we’ve run free talks on: 

• Approaching AI
• Developing partnerships with corporates
• Recruiting and retaining volunteers

These talks have been attended by hundreds of people. 

Our Funder Plus offer has provided a wide range of free training and support, but we understand that not all organisations are able to find the time to take part. We also fund other organisations to provide training to benefit the wider London sector – such as the support for leaders offered by the Association of Chairs. 

Our new Standing with Londoners funding policy has been designed in close consultation with the organisations and sectors we fund, so applicants can expect faster decision-making timelines, clearer eligibility criteria and clearer funding priorities. 

As we develop new funding programmes we will provide regular learning events for funded organisations, our colleagues and wider stakeholders, to enable networking and to share challenges and successes. This approach will help evolve our funding programmes and continually improve the knowledge and skills of all partners working towards our common purpose.

Every month we circulate an email newsletter to our funded organisations and the wider sector outlining numerous funding offers open to the London sector (available from City Bridge Foundation and other funders), along with free training opportunities. 

• Difficulty in securing financial support, reliance on external funding sources and sustainability concerns. 154 of our respondents mentioned difficulty in securing funding. This concern is regularly mentioned in the feedback we receive.
• Difficulties relating to reaching, engaging with and serving communities effectively.
• Struggles with funding higher staff salaries and increases in National Insurance costs.
• Challenges in scaling up operations, developing new initiatives, and growing organisational impact. 

At City Bridge Foundation we are deeply aware of the challenges facing London’s charitable sector. Our new Standing with Londoners funding policy aims to make it easier to access flexible, long-term, core and unrestricted funding, with a stronger focus on tackling the root causes of the challenges faced by the capital’s communities.

We also provide other forms of funding and we collaborate with other funders and partners to increase the reach and impact of our grant-making and philanthropic work. 

City Bridge Foundation provides a range of free, non-financial support options for funded organisations. We call this our Funder Plus offer. 

Of the 171 organisations whose feedback was received in this period, 16 had made use of our specialist Funder Plus support and 40 had attended free learning events such as our welcome sessions and our regular Spotlight Talks. 

Of those who had not participated with any of our free support options:

• 36 told us they didn’t have time
• 28 didn’t know about them
• 36 other (capacity, need etc)

We fully understand that funded organisations may lack the time or resources to commit to our longer-term Funder Plus offers, which is why we share monthly updates highlighting other free training opportunities. Many of these can be as short as one or two hours. 

Our Funder Plus offer is now evolving to align with our new funding, and will reflect the skills, capabilities, and systemic approaches needed to address London’s most pressing challenges.

Our offer will continue to adapt to meet the needs of funded organisations and the wider sector, including: skills development, peer-based learning, environmental sustainability and strengthening connections between stakeholders across a movement.

We use an internal coding system of 163 Project Tags to help us analyse which areas and communities we are funding. Any one grant can have a range of different Project Tags allocated to it.

In the period November 2025 — January 2025 our top five Project Tags were

• Disabled people
• Advice
• Arts
• Community
• Mental health

The Mental Health, Community, and Arts tags are all quite rare appearances in the top project tags. This reflects the wide range of our funding, rather than a sudden surge in applications from these specific sectors. 

Between November 2025 — January 2025 our top impact areas, based on number of grants awarded, were:

• Deaf and Disabled people: 22 grants, £3.0m
• Children and Young People: 15 grants; £2.3m
• Refugees and Migrants: 14 grants, £1.2m

GrantAdvisor photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash