Feedback from our funded organisations: August — October 2024

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 our Impact & Learning forms, which we ask funded organisations to fill in once a year, and at the end of each grant.

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 August – October 2024. Some feedback relates to the period after 8 October 2024, when our rolling grants programme closed to new applications.

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.

• We don’t waste your time — 98%
• We ask relevant questions — 97%
• We accept our share of the risk — 92%
• We act with urgency — 88%
• We are transparent about decisions — 92%
• We respond flexibly to changes — 95%
• We are clear about our relationship — 96%
• Our reporting is light-touch — 98%

Some respondents suggested that we could improve the Impact and Learning form we share with them once a year, and at the end of each grant. Specific suggestions were:

• Increase word count to allow respondents to reply in more detail
• Allow option to submit images
• Provide guidance/​examples of what to include

We will be increasing the word count on form questions. It is likely that image submission and guidance on these forms will be reviewed as part of the ongoing development of our funding policy. We want these forms to be easy to use and an effective means of feedback for funded organisations.

• Offer support in how to fundraise effectively and ensure long-term project sustainability
• Facilitate more networking and learning opportunities for funded organisations
• Improve Impact and Learning forms to make it easier for funded organisations to provide feedback
• Improve accessibility of resources, e.g. put workshop resources online in different languages/​formats

We regularly share free support opportunities in our monthly email bulletin to funding organisations. These are offered by City Bridge Foundation and by other experienced organisations operating in the sector. Our regular Spotlight Talks also provide free learning opportunities to funded organisations and the wider sector.

We are reviewing our Funder Plus offer to ensure its approach and design best meet the needs of our funded organisations.

We try to ensure all our resources are accessible to those using adaptive technologies such as screen readers. We are seeking to place more video guidance on our website. We tend not to share resources in multiple formats as it is harder to ensure accessibility, and creates duplication.

Applicants for funding are always welcome to contact us if they require application forms or guidance notes in alternative formats or if they require any type of adjustment.

By sharing some of the challenges they face, funded organisations help to steer the direction of our funding policy and the wider support we offer to the sector.

• Difficulty in securing sustainable funding amidst a competitive and uncertain funding landscape
• Expanding reach to meet underserved groups
• Gathering and managing meaningful data and feedback to inform work
• Maintaining current demand for services, often due to limited resources, lack of expertise or other organisational demands

At City Bridge Foundation we are deeply aware of the challenges facing London’s charitable sector. We had to close our rolling grants programme to new applications in October 2024, but we will begin opening new programmes in autumn 2025, following an extensive period of consultation, research and review. See Developing our new funding policy. 

Our aim is 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 are continuing to send out a monthly email bulletin to our funded organisations. This frequently points to free support and training from third-party suppliers in relation to data collection and data interpretation.

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

Of the 180 organisations whose feedback was received in this period, 12 had made use of our Bridge Programme and 43 had attended free learning events such as Envisioning London 2035, our welcome sessions, or one of our regular Spotlight Talks.

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

• 48 told us they didn’t have time
• 34 didn’t know about them
• 35 gave another reason (capacity, need etc)

We are undertaking a complete review of our Bridge Programme and our wider Funder Plus offer, to ensure it best meets the needs and expectations of our funded organisations. 

We always aim to provide recordings of our online events to those who cannot attend them. Our in-person Envisioning London 2035 was followed by another, online consultation event, for those who could not attend in person.

Our Spotlight Talk in November 2024 was focused on volunteer management and featured an online panel discussion with four of our funded organisations. They spoke about recruiting and retaining volunteers and ensuring the offer is accessible. 

Seventy five participants joined us on the day. Those who could not attend were able to watch a recording of the session.

Top tips people took away from the session:

• Focus on the purpose and impact for volunteers
• Break up tasks for volunteers in to smaller chunks
• Create communication packs which volunteers can share with others
• Be ambitious with which skills you’re looking for in a volunteer and aim to seek those
• Seek regular feedback from volunteers

Spotlight Talks are provided free to our funded organisations, roughly four times a year.

Our Spotlight Talks can be viewed on YouTube. The public recordings feature the main panel sessions, but omit the wider discussions which follow to respect participants’ privacy.

This data relates to the 180 funded organisations who have completed an end-of-year or an end-of-grant Impact and Learning Report during the feedback period of August to October 2024.

The 180 grants represent funding of £26.4m, of which 155 grants, worth £22m, are from our mainstream funding programme. Applications to this programme are now closed.

A further 13 grants, worth £856k, relate to transition funding offered to funded organisations when we consolidated some of our funding strands a few years ago, to ensure we supported any organisations unable to apply for continuation funding. 

A further 12 grants relate to our targeted Strategic Initiatives programme or funding delivered through our funder collaborations such as Cornerstone and London’s Giving.

In 2023, we awarded 24% of our grants to organisations that tell us they are​led by the communities they support. This generally means that at least 75% of their board and at least 50% of their leadership self-identify as being from a specific marginalised community or protected characteristic. 

In 2022 we awarded 21% of our grants to ​‘led by’ organisations.

Between August and October 2024 the top three ​‘led by’ sectors awarded funding by City Bridge Foundation were:

• Women and girls: 23 grants, £3.9m
• Communities experiencing racial inequity: 10 grants, £1.3m
• Disabled people: 8 grants, £1.2m

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 August — October 2024 our top five Project Tags were

• Minority Ethnic People
• Young People
• Older People
• Refugees
• Advice

Between August and October 2024 our top impact areas, based on number of grants awarded, were:

• Support for refugees, asylum seekers and migrants: 22 grants, £2.9m
• Provision of advice and support: 14 grants; £2.2m
• Support for children and young people: 17 grants, £2.5m

“We have never undertaken an access audit before and so there was a lot of learning to do. The design appraisal process taught us a great deal and lots of ideas about how full accessibility can be achieved and gave us the confidence we needed in our plans. 

As a disability charity, equal access is crucial to us. The good practice information and guides attached to the access audit will be an invaluable resource when we come to make our changes.” 

Anonymous feedback