At the end of 2023, the Walcot Foundation governor trustees signed off our strategy - the first one in the organisation’s 350 year history. The first three sections relate directly to our grant-making activities and should be of most interest to you if you’re reading this...
Over the past few months, we’ve been working on our business plan. This will help us put into practice what we want to achieve in, with and alongside, the community. Each of those three sections (primarily related to grant-making) has a number of activities that we think will move us towards realising our aims. The grant-making world, and wider philanthropy, has been pushed into a reckoning with itself and there are questions that need to be answered, such as around how we generate income. But there are also lots of lingering tensions - what roles should we play? Are we replicating or enhancing harms caused by the system our wealth is built on? What’s the appropriate balance between short-term need and future visioning? Are our processes and practices reflective of the world we want to see? Giving time and space to discuss some of these issues, has meant adjusting how we see ourselves as part of Lambeth’s ecosystem and changing the patterns of behaviours, mindsets and practices that we are engaged in while making sure that we are able to continue delivering the good work we have been providing as per standard. We were going to let you all know further details about these changes once they had been confirmed and business plans were signed off - but perfection is the enemy of progress and so we decided to update you all now. The "How we’ll do this” parts of the strategy are the new or formalised pieces we’ll be working on the coming years. We think this will help shift us from solely a funder to a more active and appropriate actor in supporting the local ecosystem to thrive, and, by extension, work towards living our mission. The most immediate change that some of you have spoken to us about is the reduction of open grants rounds from three to two per year. Historically, the only way an organisation could get funded by Walcot was through an open grant round. We will not stop having open grants rounds, and the vast majority of funding will still happen through this approach. However, since the introduction of our first thematic cohort programme (BounceBack) in 2021, we acknowledged that we needed the flexibility to be able to work with people on different terms. Every way of making grants privileges some people and disadvantages others so as a way of creating a different kind of space to redistribute some of our resources, we have reduced the number of open grants rounds to two per year and adjusted the amount of money in those “pots”. However, we wish to be clear that the grant budget for the 24/25 financial year will still increase from the previous year. What those different spaces look and feel like we’re not sure yet but we hope that we can work together to help create a more equal society in Lambeth and beyond. We’ll also be sharing our first Approach to Change - an adapted and hopefully more appropriate Model/Theory of Change - in the near future which we hope will indicate some of our thinking as we continue on this journey. The Walcot Foundation Grants team
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Firstly we offer our condolences to the three beautiful talented young girls who were horrifically and senselessly murdered.
We were saddened by the recent racist violence that took place in towns and cities across the UK following these tragic deaths. We wish to share our support and solidarity with those affected by the acts of violence both offline and online. Walcot Foundation condemns these and any efforts to sow discord, division and hate in and amongst communities. Such actions stand against everything we believe in. As one of the funders dedicated to servicing and supporting diverse communities across the London Borough of Lambeth, we stand with all of our communities to work together to reduce and remove social, economic, structural and institutional barriers preventing young people from thriving. We are communicating with all the organisations and individuals we support to ensure we are doing what we can to support them during these fractious times. If you would like to, you can donate funds to support important work taking place across Lambeth, focused on young people and their hopeful endeavours to play their part as members of diverse inclusive cohesive communities. Following the introduction of the Mayor of London universal primary free school meals (UFSM) policy this academic year, Impact on Urban Health (IOUH) and the Walcot Foundation have entered into partnership to offer up to £3000 of grant funding to Lambeth primary schools needing to upgrade their kitchen equipment and/or facilities in order to deliver on this policy.
To apply Lambeth primary schools will need to complete a short application form (taking no more than 10 minutes), applications will then be assessed via a local decision-making panel. A frequently asked questions document can be found here and the application form can be completed via the below link. Lambeth Schools UFSM Roll Out Fund application The deadline for applications to be submitted is Friday 1st March 2024.
We are really pleased that Walcot Foundation received an A rating in the 2023 results for the Foundation Practice Rating initiative.
Foundation Practice Rating aims to improve practice across the grant-making sector on the key themes of acocuntability, transparency and diversity. They have created a four level rating system (A, B, C, D) where Foundations are scored against information they provide about themselves on their public information (e.g. website, Charity Commission). This research was carried out by Giving Evidence and over 100 Foundations were reviewed from ACF’s top 300 list using this rating system. This is the second year of the initiative. This year, seven Foundations achieved an A rating, which is an improvement on last year when the FPR announced its first ever set of results and awarded three A ratings. The Foundations that received an A rating vary in size and structure (Walcot Foundation, Oxfordshire Community Foundation, John Ellerman Foundation, Blagrave Trust, Wellcome Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Paul Hamlyn Foundation). The Walcot Foundation Governor Priorities help guide the type of projects that we fund within our focus on Lambeth low-income residents. We typically review these priorities every three years.
If you would like to contribute to our current review you can do so by completing our strategy survey. This should take no longer than 10 minutes. Please keep in mind that our charitable objects require that ALL our funding must be focused on Lambeth beneficiaries and 85% needs to be spent on projects which relate to education, training and employment for under-30s. The survey will run until 20 February and the new Governor Priorities will be published on our website by July 2023. As well as this survey and our tri-annual 'Listening to Grantees' exercise, we are running further focus groups, stakeholder interviews and undertaking desk research to inform the new strategy. The ongoing cost of living crisis is causing significant hardship to many Lambeth residents and local organisations are facing the twin struggle of their own rising costs coupled with increased demand for services. In response to this, Governors of the Walcot Foundation have added an additional £300K to our annual grants budget in order to provide some assistance. This includes:
West Norwood based firm Winn & Coales (Denso) Ltd is continuing to generously support local community projects with donations totaling £45,000. It has made a £20,000 donation to Rathbone Youth Centre's Inspiring Learning Project. This is the second year of a three year commitment. As Charline King, Head of Children and Young People' Services says, "We would like to thank Winn and Coales for their long-term support. This three year funding from Winn & Coales has been crucial in enabling us to be able to offer long-term mentoring and education support. The three-year funding enables us to build and strengthen our relationships with the young people and their families, to be fully embedded with our community and partner schools and to provide continuous support over time to young people to make progress with their learning." Also, in response to the cost of living crisis, Winn & Coales has made a £25,000 donation to Norwood and Brixton Foodbank. As energy bills and food prices rise, more and more local residents are being pulled into crisis. The Foodbank is facing significant growing need in what is likely to be a very busy winter. This donation will enable the Foodbank to lease an electric van and hire a driver for a year so as to expand the number of home deliveries they can make to clients that find it difficult to make it to the centres. This will be particularly beneficial to elderly and disabled clients. We are greatly saddened by death of Her Majesty the Queen and on behalf of The Walcot Foundation we wish to express our condolences on the passing of her Majesty The Queen and extend our full sympathies to the Royal Family at this time of national mourning. Her unfaltering commitment and dedication to a life of service is a huge inspiration and example to us all. The Walcot Foundation is seeking to appoint an Honorary Adviser to the Foundation’s Grants Committee. S/he will provide advice and offer comment on grant applications. The Adviser will also provide insight on current issues locally for community groups, charities and social enterprises and how the Foundation may best support young people and families from low-income backgrounds.
Person Specification
Terms This is an honorary appointment and carries no pay, save reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses directly associated with the role. The appointee will be expected to attend all meetings of the Grants Committee (5-6 meetings per year that take place on Wednesdays at 6.30pm in the Governors’ Boardroom at 125 Kennington Road, SE11 6SF). There will be occasional contact with the Director and Grants Manager outside the meetings. The post is advisory. Governors are responsible for considering whether to act on any such advice. The post holder will not be held responsible by the Governors or Foundation in any way for any action they (the Governors) may take or not take. The appointment is for one year initially. How to Apply Please email [email protected] with your CV and a short covering letter explaining why you are interested in this role and why you consider yourself a good fit for this role. Also, please could you complete this Equalities Monitoring Form. Closing Date: 10am 19 September Interviews: Early October First Grants Committee Meeting: 6.30pm 2 November Please contact Daniel Chapman, Grants Manager (020 7735 1925) if you have any queries or wish to talk further about the role. |
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