As the year comes to a close, we’re excited to share an update on our new strategy from grants directors Klara Skrivankova and Alex Sutton. We'll be launching the new strategy in 2024.
We last shared an update in September, highlighting the breadth of conversations we’ve had over the past year. We remain hugely grateful to everyone who shared their lived, learned and practical experience with us. We received lots of insight into the areas we were exploring, and received a clear message that we should focus on making the most impact with the resources we have.
Over the past few months, we’ve worked with our trustees to prioritise and sharpen our vision and goals, and we’re pleased to offer a sneak-peek of our next funding strategy.
Sharpening our focus
As a starting point, we recognise that London remains a deeply unequal place. To create a fairer city, we need a strong civil society that's able to fight for economic justice, so that Londoners have enough income for a decent standard of living, and for social justice, so everyone can thrive regardless of who they are. These two pillars - economic and social justice – are two sides of the same coin and will form the foundation of our new strategy.
Our strategy will also embed our commitment to strategic philanthropy. We see ourselves as mission driven with a clear remit to reduce poverty and inequality in London. We’re going to be more specific about the changes we want to see, both immediate and long-term. But this doesn’t mean we'll be prescriptive about how this change happens. Instead, we’ll back the experience and ingenuity of London’s civil society by being a flexible, supportive and pro-active funder.
To create a fairer city, we need a strong civil society that's able to fight for economic justice, so that Londoners have enough income for a decent standard of living, and for social justice, so everyone can thrive regardless of who they are.
So, what change do we want to see? We’ll provide more detail in 2024, but here it is in a nutshell.
Economic justice
Our economic justice programme aims to increase Londoners incomes and reduce their cost of living. We’ll focus on:
- Decent work, ensuring all workers in London enjoy decent pay and conditions
- Strengthening Social Security, so it’s designed around the needs of Londoners, is fairly administered, and maintains the dignity of claimants
- Tackling the housing crisis, working towards a future where everyone in the city can live in stable, good quality, affordable homes
- Eliminating the poverty premium so Londoners in poverty no longer pay a premium for essential goods and services
Tackling these issues will ensure that many Londoners will be lifted out of poverty. But even then, some people will be unfairly held back because of who they are.
Social justice
Our social justice programme aims to tackle injustices that lead to some communities being disproportionately pushed into poverty. We’ll focus on:
- Ending migrant destitution, by fighting for an immigration system that is humane and does not force people into destitution
- Justice for Disabled people, by investing in a strong, vibrant, diverse, and sustainable disability justice movement in the city
- Tackling racial injustice by working to increase incomes and wealth in black and minoritised households and communities in London.
We expect to launch our new strategy in spring 2024 and reopen our funding to new organisations. In the meantime, we’ll continue distributing funding to our existing funded partners (eligible organisations have already been contacted), and through our racial justice fund (second round has recently closed with decisions to be announced in early 2024) and our Disability justice fund (now open for applications – more info here).
Until then, we wish all of our partners strength and prosperity for the year ahead.