March 2010
The funders’ footprint?
Climate change and the environment: how can funders have an impact?
London Funders members’ meeting, 22 March 2010
Hosted by Mazars LLP at their London office, Tower Bridge
Starts with a sandwich lunch at 1 pm, finishes 5.30, followed by a drinks reception
Chair: Donnachadh McCarthy,
founder of 3 Acorns Eco-Audits, journalist, author and television commentator on the climate crisis
The meeting will:
- equip funders with up-to-date awareness of issues and policy direction in London on climate change and the environment
- reinforce the importance of voluntary and community sector action in these areas
- share practical guidance on how funders can make a contribution to solutions
- collect examples of good environmental practice
What are the incentives to action – and the barriers? Can funders help each other, and those they fund, recognise their potential for positive impact? Are we too daunted by an issue that is so big that individual action seems irrelevant? This meeting will look at the connections between responsibility for the environment and social justice, and explore how and why groups that serve London’s communities can be encouraged and supported to bring environmental awareness and changed practice into mainstream work.
Programme includes:
- Scene-setting on the impact of climate change on London and the social justice implications
Penny Bramwell, Head of Environment and Sustainable Development Unit, Government Office for London, and Peter Daw, Policy and Programmes Manager for the GLA’s climate change mitigation and air quality work, GLA
- What was achieved by the joint Ministerial and Third Sector Task Force on climate change?
Stephen Hale, CEO, Green Alliance, was part of its Secretariat and will tell us about its aims and outcomes
Clare Thomas, Chief Grants Officer, The City Bridge Trust, was a member of the Task Force and will share its vision for third sector action on climate change and recommendations for funders. She will also review the impact of City Bridge Trust’s programme Greening the Third Sector
There will be a marketplace of ideas and plenty of time to talk and ask questions. In small groups participants will have the chance to draw on experience on many topics such as:
Funding programmes to promote good environmental practice
How funders are embedding climate change in their initiatives
Borough environmental policies and services that support VCS involvement
Community Development Foundation’s guide to community action on climate issues, Green Up!
If you have ideas or experience to add to this session, please tell yvonne@londonfunders.org.uk
London Funders will sign the third sector declaration on climate change during the session.
Members and other funders welcome: to book fill in the booking form and email it to
Yvonne Schwartz by Thursday, 18 March.
Free for members and associates of London Funders; £100 for non-member funders
Events 2009
December 2009
Personalisation agenda
Individual budgets for health and social care
Members' meeting
10.00 am – 1.00 pm at London Councils (followed by lunch)
To help funders understand the implications of the “personalisation agenda” - personalised funding models in general and individual budgets for personal care in particular. The meeting included a description of the individual budgets scene including the experience of pilot areas, the learning that came from them and how the model is rolling out further. We heard from some practitioners talking from experience and ran through what the implications could be for funders – because of the impact on funded groups - and factors specific to London.
Click here for Natasha's presentation
Click here for Craig's presentation
Click here for Estelle's presentation
back to top
October 2009
London perspectives: How funders use information to enhance their insights and practice
Members meeting, 1 October 2009, hosted by Buzzacott
Using the recent work of three funders, the meeting covered different kinds of research and how to put research findings to practical use - shaping funding policy and practice.
The three examples were all concerned with poverty in London and our discussion also looked at the realities of poverty and inequality and how, using both statistical data and individual stories, we had the means to dispel myths about what is characterised from outside as the UK's richest region.
Individual presentations and a final panel session provided opportunities for funders to learn about these specific approaches to mapping and using data at pan-London, borough and locality levels, discussed the role of researchers, the available data, and shared their own experience of the transformation of information into practice.
Click here for the presentation about London's Poverty Profile
Click here for further information about London's Poverty Profile
Click here for the presentation about Invisible Islington
Click here for the report Invisible Islington
Click here for the presentation from The Mayor’s Fund for London
Click here to download the full report of this meeting
back to top
June 2009
Current strategies in funding
A meeting for London’s funders and investors and London Funders Annual General Meeting
Funding strategies were the topic for the London Funders members’ meeting on 15 June 2009 – both long term and very much the immediate situation.
Members of London Funders first shared their ideas on how they could together best support the voluntary and community sector through the recession, and what they wanted from London Funders to assist them. Information sharing was the primary area, to help them to be smarter funders.
They then started looking a little further ahead with the help of two members of NCVO’s Funding Commission. The Commission’s Chair, Rachel Lomax, and one of its members, Stephen Dunmore – an experienced funder currently Acting Chief Executive of The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund – described the Commission’s key plans and invited feedback. They have decided to focus on:
- capitalising the VCS
- modernising giving, and
- boosting local effectiveness.
To read more detail of the discussions, please click here for the meeting report.
back to top
March 2009
Trends in US giving
A new generation of donors - a conversation with Peter de Courcy Hero (in conjunction with Community Foundation Network)
Peter Hero was until recently the President and CEO of Community Foundation Silicon Valley where he helped set a style and standard for giving that changed hearts and minds in this economic hothouse in California which had little philanthropic giving culture before. The Foundation’s assets grew from $7 million in 1989 when he started to $1.1 billion in 2007, with $150+ million grantmaking.
He encouraged many people new to philanthropy to work with the community foundation in supporting voluntary and community organisations: young entrepreneurs and leaders of Silicon Valley’s major industries helped create the concept of engaged donors. Social venture philanthropy formed deep roots in this area. And many migrants to the area not only participate in local philanthropy but have achieved great things in their home countries as a result of inspiration from CFSV. He made strong links with professional advisers (lawyers, accountants, investment managers) and successfully enlisted their help in promoting giving.
Peter has retired from the Foundation but is still active in teaching Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford University’s Graduate Business School and working as a consultant in many parts of the world. Thanks to Community Foundation Network we have a chance to catch him en route for some work in the Czech Republic and we have invited him to meet interested funders.
Peter talked about recent trends in giving in his part of the world and shared some of his experience in switching people on to becoming significant and strategic philanthropists. He also shared some thoughts on how American foundations are responding to the current economic crisis.
To read the full report of this meeting click here
back to top
February 2009
The recession: we're all in it together
On 11 February 2009, four partner organisations, including London Funders, held a conference for public sector, charitable and corporate funders together with a broad cross-section of the voluntary and community sector in London to consider how to develop shared strategies and practices for these tough economic times. Please see presentations and reports from the event:
How are funders following up the event? Click here to see notes from a London Funders project group meeting.
Presentations and speeches:
Background material:
back to top
|