Funding applications: priorities and approval rates

Having committed exceptional levels of funding to London’s charitable sector until 2026, we closed our rolling grants programmes to new applications on Tuesday, 8 October 2024 for one year. 

This will allow us to manage our existing grants and pre-closure applications, while reviewing and developing our new funding policy, launching in autumn 2025.

In recent months we have seen a significant increase in the number of funding applications received at City Bridge Foundation. 

This has happened because of changes in our own funding programmes, changes introduced by other funders, and several years of pressure on the voluntary sector, not least from the pandemic and high inflation.

Based on our available funds we anticipate a significantly reduced approval rate in the applications we are currently reviewing. As such, we need to prioritise our support to ensure our funds reach those organisations most aligned to our mission. 

These changes will apply to applications to our mainstream funding programmes which have been received and are undergoing assessment, and new funding applications. 

These changes will not affect applications to our Anchor Programme, our Suicide Prevention funding (Making London more Liveable and Strategic Partnership Funding) or applications to the Propel funding collaboration. 

We will prioritise support for organisations which are:

• led by members of the communities they serve

• based in or working in one or more of the areas we have been less successful in supporting: Enfield, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, and Redbridge

• able to demonstrate the ability to deliver their proposed work effectively

• working with communities and individuals experiencing disadvantage and marginalisation (such as minoritised communities, low-income families, D/​deaf and/​or disabled people, and other vulnerable groups or protected characteristics)

• able to present clear outcomes demonstrating significant potential impact for their target communities

In addition, we will give priority to organisations with:

• turnover of less than £500,000
• more than 30% of turnover from non-statutory sources
• free reserves equivalent to up to nine months’ expenditure

Successful applications will not have to meet all these criteria, but we will use them when we consider the relative strengths of funding requests against our available budget.

We know this means there will be a considerable amount of excellent work that we cannot support.

To ensure that our grant budget is managed fairly across the coming months, we are also introducing a new step of monthly funding panels. These panels will look at all funding recommendations for the month and agree which should be taken forward.

We are still aiming to provide decisions within our current four to six month target but recognise this additional process could create some delay. 

We will do our best to keep all applicants informed of the progress of your funding applications.