The Care-full Closures Fund

Overview

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation has provided funding for up to 4 organisations to be supported to anticipate, consider and design an organisations ending.

Who is this fund for?

This fund is open to nonprofit organisations of any size who are considering closure and are wanting to explore their options carefully, intentionally and with a design-led approach.

What do they mean by the ending or closure of an organisation in this context?

They mean simply that an organisation in its current form is considering coming to an end. This means it might merge with another or it might close while handing over certain programmes or services to another. (This fund is therefore not for those looking to design the ending of individual projects or programmes).

What stage should you be at?

They are open to organisations from across the various stages anticipating an organisational ending.

As outlined in their Sensing an Ending Toolkit, if you are anticipating an organisational ending perhaps all you have at the moment is a shared sense that your work might need to stop or change. Or this might be something you and your colleagues or trustees might have had at the back of your minds for many years but recent events have hastened the idea.

If you’ve only just begun thinking about how to take those next steps and aren’t sure what they might look like, that’s a good starting point. As an organisation you might have:

• Achieved your original purpose or feel that the need for it has reduced;
• Lost the funding and resources you need to carry on but would like to keep that purpose alive in some capacity;
• Be considering a merger with an adjacent organisation and want to help design a bespoke strategy to deliver it well for all parties involved.

Whatever it might be, they want to help you start a conversation with your stakeholders, both externally and at all levels internally, to navigate that process well.

In particular, they’d love to hear from you if you’re a civil society organisation that:

• Is interested in collaborating on a considered and reflective process of ending or evolving
• Would like that process to be inclusive of all stakeholders, especially across hierarchies
• Can identify a core internal group to work with Deeds and Words on a strategy around that change or closure.
• Is interested in working with a range of external partners and practitioners
• Would benefit from a library of resources and shared learning on designing and delivering ‘good endings’
• Could be ready to start this work in the next 4–5 months (in the autumn / winter of 2021)

What support will you get?

They are in a position to offer up to 4 organisations paid for time with experienced consultants Caroline Ellis, Delia Barker and Faye Davies at the firm Deeds and Words. Alongside them Iona Lawrence, co-lead of Stewarding Loss, will also support. Organisations will also be given a grant of up to £4,000 to fund staff time and associated costs for this work. Due to the bespoke nature of this work, each of the grantees will work with Deeds And Words to develop an agreement of how they want to work together.

In time the knowledge and learning from these grants will be shared in their Care-Full Closures community of practice to inform wider practice in the field of organisational endings and closures.