Esmee Fairbairn Foundation: Creative, Confident Communities

Overview

In October 2020, they launched a new strategy to improve our natural world, strengthen the bonds in UK communities and secure a fairer future.

Overview of Creative, Confident Communities

They want to strengthen the bonds in communities, helping local people to build vibrant, confident places where they can fulfil their creative, human and economic potential. Places where the local economy works better for the people who live there, where there is equality of access to arts and culture, and where communities are at the heart of change.

Places where the local economy works better for the people who live there, where there is equality of access to arts and culture, and where communities are at the heart of change.

Working with others, they will contribute to three key impact goals by 2030:

They look for work that:

• Puts the place first: by this, they mean reflects the unique character and needs of the local area and its people.
• Is community-led and collaborative: by this, they mean local people are at the heart of the change and have decision-making power. For them, the process is just as important as the outcomes.
• Leaves a positive legacy: by this, they mean developing long-term community capacity and resilience.
• Prioritises equity: by this, they mean the principles of fairness and equity are embedded in the approach, and the work engages and represents the diverse communities in a place.
• Creates long-term, sustainable change: by this, they mean aims to disrupt and change what does not work and to push things forward in a new way.
• Has scope to spread: by this, they mean work that can expand its influence beyond the initial impact and our funding.

If you decide to submit an expression of interest, they will ask you which priority your work is most aligned to. You’ll also have the option to choose up to two other priorities your work contributes to.

In each priority, they have identified a number of long-term outcomes. They want to know how your work contributes to these. Unless specified, applications do not need to meet more than one long-term outcome. 

A glossary explaining terms they use in relation to work in Creative, Confident Communities is here.

Watch their Q&A webinar about applying for funding in Creative, Confident Communities.

Financial Support

Grant funding approach

Their grants support organisation's core or project costs, including staff salaries and overheads. They also provide unrestricted funding for charities. They do not fund building or equipment costs, or individuals.

The minimum amount they offer is £30,000 and they have no maximum amount. 

They also do not have minimum or maximum terms for grants – however, the majority of their grants are for three to five years.

They are aiming to make more longer-term grants to organisations that will have a lasting and significant contribution to their impact goals, and fewer short-term or small-scale grants.

• Around two thirds of their active grants are for core costs, or are unrestricted.
• Most of our grants are for three years to five years.

Decisions are made depending on the size of the funding request:

• Grants up to £90k - Executive Team
• Grants up to £250k & social investment up to £500k - Executive/Trustee committee, which meets every 6 weeks
• Grants over £250k and Social Investment over £500k - Trustee Board, which meets 6 times a year

They aim to give you a decision within three months of receiving your proposal. However, there may be a few occasions where larger requests take longer due to the timing of their Board meetings. Decisions are usually faster for smaller grants (£90,000 or less).

Success rates for applications in 2023 (excluding those for follow-on grants and those we have proactively invited)

• 7% of eligible expressions of interest were invited to submit a proposal
• 93% of proposals submitted went on to be awarded a grant

Social investments

Their social investments start with the social or environmental need and tailor the investment to it and offering flexibility. Co-design and learning are integral to their process. As well as making direct investments into organisations seeking to create impact towards their aims, they also invest into impact funds, which are managed by other social investors.

To be eligible for social investment, you must:

• Deliver or plan to deliver measurable outcomes that align closely to the priorities under our aims.
• Be a charity or social enterprise or have a structure that includes a Mission Lock or be willing to add one.
• Demonstrate a suitable repayment or exit plan for the investment you are seeking.
• Be operating in the UK.

They are particularly interested in supporting

• Organisations led by, and for, people with lived experience of the issues they are working on.
• Ideas with the potential to influence wider positive change, help attract mainstream finance into impact or disrupt broken markets. See their Investment priorities for examples.
• Ideas, structures and interventions that meaningfully involve their communities.
• Impact that intersects across one or more of our Aims.
• Partnerships and collaborations.

Decisions are made depending on the size of the funding request:

• Social investment up to £500k - Executive/Trustee committee, which meets every 6 weeks. In some cases, our Executive/Trustee Committee will ask the Board to review a proposal of under £500k if they identify a particular risk or complexity.
• Social investment over £500k - Trustee Board, which meets 6 times a year

The amount of time this process takes varies according to many factors, but three months is a reasonable minimum expectation.

Visit here for further information.