Funding Sustainable Change

Campaigning for change is about making a lasting, positive impact on people's lives. Voluntary and community organisations exist to improve the world around them, but lasting systemic change requires a well informed and coordinated approach to influencing people and decisions.

"For your efforts to have any lasting benefit, you must tackle the roots of a problem." Joseph Rowntree

Whether you are a trust or foundation looking to find out more about funding campaigning or applying for funding yourself we have brought together a range of resources to support you:

Supporting campaigning: A funder's guide
Theory of Change; Learning from the US
Other research
Other resources

Supporting campaigning: A funder's guide

Our short guide aims to support trusts and foundations in their thinking about campaigning as well as providing insight to those approaching trusts to fund campaigning activity. It highlights key lessons in supporting sustainable change drawn from a range of evaluations and case studies. The guide also highlights the areas of campaigning and influening work trusts could fund and case studies of what could be achieved from Every Disabled Child Matters, Local Voices, Global Ban - campaign to ban cluster munitions and the Special Education Consortium.

Download the pdf Supporting campaigning a funders guide (PDF, 970KB)

Campaigning for Change: Learning from the United States

How do you know whether your campaign is making a difference?

Being able to answer this question is crucial for both campaigns to develop effectively and for campaigners to communicate the impact of their campaigns to a wide range of audiences. This new report outlines a systematic approach to evaluating campaigning know as Theory of Change which has emerged in the United States through a number of charitable and philanthropic foundations seeking to develop an overarching approach to setting the strategy, planning and evaluation of campaigning.

The Theory of Change approach can help campaigners to better develop clear aims and strategies, to question how change occurs and make it implicit within planning, the relationship between campaign stages and activities, as well as to make explicit the assumptions often implicit within campaigning.

The guide explores the Theory of Change approach, how change happens and provides campaigners with practical ways to develop clear aims and strategies, building in meaningful evaluation and to understand and ultimately to more effectively achieve change.

Find out more and download our free guide Campaigning for Change: Learning from the US

Other research

Funding for Sustainable Change, DSC and Campaigning Effectiveness NCVO

79% of trusts have criteria that allow them to fund campaigning, advocacy and influencing activities, but only 30% definitely fund them, says recent research from the Directory of Social Change, in partnership with NCVO's Campaigning Effectiveness. Based on a sample of 2,500 trusts, the research suggests that "whilst a large number of funding opportunities exist...a lack of clarity from trusts is preventing voluntary sector organisations from accessing funds," said Amy Rosser of the DSC.

Along with providing funding, funders can play a vital role in helping people and organisations to run successful campaigns and learn from their experiences. Campaigning Effectiveness can play a key role in supporting funders to do this by sharing our knowledge, information and resources with funders on what makes an effective campaign and helping people and organisations to assess is your campaign making a difference?

Download the free report to find out more (PDF 79KB)

Read Third Sector article

Lessons from a funder: Local Voices, Global Ban campaign

"Does trying to change social policy and practice make more sense than picking up the pieces of lives failed by them?" asks Samantha Rennie of the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.

Through sharing lessons from their Local Voices, Global Ban scheme, the Fund hopes to "..inspire more independent funders to try to change policy and practice". Issuing a series of small grants that supported campaigning activities in 44 countries - seeking to influence government policy in the lead up to the convention on cluster munitions - enabled the Fund to support the campaign and achieve long-term sustainable change. Lessons from the campaign are set out in the report Local Voices, Global Ban, including:

Setting up and running small grants for campaigners is not difficult and is within Charity Commission guidelines.
Small grants schemes deliver results if they are part of a wider funder strategy.
Funders interested in supporting campaigns are more effective if they understand the relevant policy environment, have good long term relationships with partner organisations, and can act in an agile manner.

Read the executive summary of the report.

Read article in the Guardian.

Read about the Ban Advocates: one of the projects funded by Local Voices, Global Ban.

Critical Masses: social campaigning a guide for funders and donors

"...more donors and funders should support campaigning charities and charities' campaigning programmes" says a report from New Philanthropy Capital (NPC). Critical Masses makes the case for funding social campaigning identifying two areas where funders should prioritise their support:

The monitoring and evaluating of campaigns to ensure that future campaigns are more effective
Building skills, networks and tools for campaigners

Read New Philanthropy Capital's report Critical Masses report.

Atlantic Reports: Investing in Change - Why Supporting Advocacy Makes Sense for Foundations

This report focuses on the practice of grantmaking in support of advocacy and explains why the Atlantic Philanthropies and other funders are committed to advocacy as a valuable strategy to advance social change. It also highlights the advocacy grantmaking experiences of the Atlantic Philanthropies and other foundations in the U.S. and around the world.

Download the free report from the Atlantic Philanthropies website.

Other resources

Funding

NCVO's Sustainable Funding Project provides tools, training, consultancy and resources that pioneer, encourage and enable voluntary and community organisations to develop and implement a sustainable income strategy. Read more

Funding Central is a free website for the whole voluntary and community sector, including social enterprise, providing access to thousands of funding and finance opportunities, plus a wealth of tools and resources supporting organisations to develop sustainable income strategies appropriate to their needs. Visit http://www.fundingcentral.org.uk