Lambeth Community Response Fund - The Story So Far

We saw the likely impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in early March 2020 and took urgent steps to re-target our grants programmes in response.  We also used our contacts to indicate our readiness to use our networks to handle funding from other sources. These eventually amounted to an additional £330,000.  The result was that our own funds and those from other sources which we distributed were able to support over 60 Lambeth community groups and schools with over £870,000 funding as they quickly adapted to the new normal of lockdown, social distancing and remote working.  More details can be found below by clicking on the Read More button . ​  

SMP Coach helping at Lambeth Food Distribution hub

Initial Response 
Our first step was to communicate with our existing grantees to offer flexibility and understanding.  If projects were unable to continue with the funded projects, grantees were able to temporarily suspend the projects or use the funds for new initiatives supporting people during lockdown.  At the start of lockdown, we had 63 active existing grants and half of the groups paused their projects and half shifted to remote working or changed the focus of their project.  An  example is St Matthew’s Project, a football-based community charity.  During lockdown they were unable to continue providing football training or coaching opportunities but using our grant funding, their staff and volunteers joined the community food distribution hub in Brixton and were able to make many deliveries to low income and isolated Lambeth residents.   

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March 2020 - A message to projects and organisations we fund 
The current public health crisis is having an impact on a number of the organisations and projects we fund in Lambeth. Here is a message for them.

• We understand the issues and will be flexible
  Grant Agreements contain specific targets, activities and timelines. We can change these and wish to be flexible and supportive. Please talk to your Grants Officer at the earliest opportunity.
• The viability of your project is important to us
  Please be frank and tell us what your situation is. 
• We want to help: talk to us
  Feel free to use us as a sounding board as you plan your response to quickly changing circumstances. Do that by 'phone or video call, which we can arrange.

Grant Funding Overview
In March we made two grants: one to Waterloo Foodbank to support their move to home delivery and another to Lambeth Larder to provide a community Covid-19 website which highlighted the local resources and support.  In April, we set up the Lambeth Community Response Fund and co-ordinated funding from other local Lambeth funders and businesses (Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity, Peter Minet Trust, Battersea Power Station Foundation, Sir Walter St John’s Educational Charity and Winn & Coales (Denso) Ltd).   

We linked this into the wider London Community Response Fund set up by London Funders which was providing a co-ordinated response by many of the funders in London.  This meant that community groups had only to make one application which could be seen by more than 50 funders.   

Internally we streamlined our grant-making system, focused our funding priorities to respond to Covid-19 and accelerated decision-making on awards. In this way we   could rapidly respond to emergency proposals from organisations and schools. 

Success Factors for the Lambeth Community Response Fund 
The following factors were crucial in how we responded: 

1. The creativity and commitment of local groups and schools in adapting to a constantly changing and challenging environment. 
2. Excellent shared platform provided by London Funders (shared application form, shared intelligence etc) which allowed funders to work together and to  reduce local organisations’ fundraising burden during this time. 
3. Good relationships with other local funders – the Walcot Foundation had already built effective links with local funders (both in Lambeth and Southwark) and we were able to use these  to co-ordinate Lambeth-based funds. 
4. Highly engaged and committed Governors (Walcot trustees) who significantly increased the frequency of Grants Committees so that decisions could be made swiftly. 
5. Remote-working technology enabled the Grants Team to meet with a higher number of organisations than usual and also allowed our Governors to meet easily and safely by video. 

​Grant Funding Details 
Between late April and early September 2020 we awarded 62 grants totalling £872,487 (detailed list here).  46 grants were via LCRF and 16 to schools.   The average size of grant was £14,072, the largest was £32,320 and smallest was £1,575.  The funding was split into Wave 2 grants (3 month short-term emergency support/transition to new ways of working - £570,567) and Wave 3 grants (6-12 month grants allowing organisations, schools and the individuals they support to emerge from the crisis and adapt to the future - £301,9200.) 

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The community projects that Walcot funded via LCRF can be broken down into the following key activities:   

• 48% for developing new online/digital services. These primarily involved organisations who needed to move services online during lockdown or who planned to develop new digital services in response to the pandemic, many of these projects also involved tackling individual digital exclusion via technology loans/gifts  E.g. £9000,00 awarded to Future Frontiers to provide online careers services to students leaving school having missed out on a final term of support due to lockdown.  
• 20% for extending services. This primarily involved organisations who needed to grow to cope with the additional demand created by Covid 19. E.g. £12,290 awarded to Disability Advice Service Lambeth, who were able to employ a new Volunteer Manager to help coordinate the increased need for 1:1 support following the introduction of social distancing protocols.   
  
• 17% for emergency support, primarily involved in the distribution of food and other essentials to those living in poverty. E.g.  £10,000 grant awarded to the Rathbone Society in West Norwood to extend their mobile food and essential items delivery service to individuals with learning disabilities.   
• 7% for tackling digital exclusion. This primarily involved organisations whose projects focused on improving digital access for the individuals they help, however many other projects included aspects of this work . E.g £13,780 awarded to Evolve Housing, which allowed them to install internet access in the rooms of vulnerable young tenants living in supported housing in Lambeth.  
• 9% ‘other’. These were longer term projects awarded funding in ‘wave 3’ that didn’t easily fit elsewhere. Examples include projects targeting academic catch up, tackling school disengagement, parental mental health and youth unemployment. 

Whilst many of these projects are still in full swing and some ‘wave 3’ work has only just begun, 43% have now completed their work and reported back.  Walcot is thus in a position to begin to analyse this data and draw some initial conclusions: 

• 40% of the projects so far have reported exceeding expectations, 35% report having met all targets and 25% have achieved between 75% – 99% of their targets. No projects funded via the London Community Response thus far have reporting achieving less than 75% of agreed targets.  
• Reports submitted show us that 83% of ‘emergency support’ projects have either exceeded their targets or achieved them in full. Suggesting the demand for food and essential supplies remained strong throughout the lockdown and the summer. Only one project working in this area delivered less than they expected to.  
• 60% of the projects that didn’t meet their targets were providing new online services. Several organisations spoke of ‘zoom fatigue’ setting in for participants and indicated that long term digital services were not seen as a replacement for their face to face work.  
• However, a significant number also reported they now planned to develop more online services as a result of their LCRF projects and were now in a much better position to do so. Partners informed us they had become more ‘tec-savvy’ and discovered demand from young people for more quality online programmes that they didn't know existed.  
• 35% of organisations stated they planned to do more online as a result of what they offered during lockdown, 25% said their partnership working had improved. Several reports highlighted engaging with new partners (such as talks from an International Horse-Riding Champion and renowned Film Director) remotely, who would not have presented to their service users in person.    

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Whilst only early indicators, these results are promising and the feedback regarding improvements in partnership working and digital services indicate the potential for a longer-term legacy for many of the projects funded.