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Each month we publish how we’re doing against the objectives and targets we’ve set for the Funders Collaborative Hub. Below is a summary of the Hub’s progress in October.
Priority 1: Grow and develop our collaboration opportunities offer
Intended outcome: Funders are more connected, through using the Hub to share and engage with impactful collaboration opportunities
Indicators:
- Increase the number of collaboration opportunities shared via the Hub (2022 target: 50 collaboration opportunities added)
- Increase the number of funders actively using the Hub to search for opportunities
- Evidence of increased engagement between funders through using the Hub
- Evidence of the contribution of funder collaboration towards increased overall impact
Our progress:
Ten collaboration opportunities were added to the Hub in October - our highest monthly total to date. With 49 opportunities added since January, we have now almost reached our full-year target of 50.
Three of the opportunities added in October were emerging opportunities:
- Building capacity of community organisations in Wales
- Climate Activist Speaker Fund
- Tackling health inequalities
The other seven were existing collaborations:
- Diversity Forum
- Charities Responsible Investment Network
- Cost-of-Living Fund
- Buckinghamshire Strategic Funders Group
- Charity reserves group
- Funders supporting We're Right Here – the campaign for community power
- Bristol Funders Group
The number of visits to our collaboration opportunity search page increased in October to 1,504. This is higher than our year-to-date monthly average of 1,440.
However, the number of users visiting this page (256) was slightly below our year-to-date average of 280. This suggests that we may be successfully engaging a core group of users, who are searching the Hub more frequently, but need to ensure we continue reaching new audiences to attract more regular users.
October’s Top 10 most visited collaboration opportunities were:
- DEI Data Standard (337 views)
- Environmental Philanthropy Lab (144 views)
- Collaborative online grants portal for people in financial hardship (135 views)
- Funder Safeguarding Collaborative (129 views)
- Tackling health inequalities (101 views)
- Exploring the routes to power and influence for small and grassroots women’s organisations (90 views)
- Developing an arts funder network in the West Midlands (81 views)
- Funders supporting We're Right Here – the campaign for community power (75 views)
- Funders for Race Equality Alliance (65 views)
- Enterprise Grants Task Force (64 views)
Priority 2: Develop the Hub’s inspiration and influencing role
Intended outcome: Funders are informed and inspired by the Hub to collaborate more effectively.
Indicators:
- Number of views of Hub case studies and blogs (2022 target: 600 per month)
- Number of views of Hub toolkit content (2022 target: 150 per month)
- New funder collaborations are developed, informed by data and insights on needs, gaps and opportunities
Our progress:
In October there were 810 views of our blogs and funder collaboration case studies and 180 views of our Funder Collaboration Toolkit homepage, both above our monthly targets.
October’s most viewed blogs:
- What I learned in Scotland (149 views)
- Progress update - September 2022 (64 views)
- You can’t do it alone (59 views)
October’s most viewed case studies:
- Growing Together (Farming the Future, 60 views)
- Humans at the heart (Future Mental Health Collective, 26 views)
- A good match (Enterprise Grants Task Force, 24 views)
If you have a viewpoint or some learning to share about funder collaboration, please get in touch about contributing to a blog or case study.
Priority 3: Integrate the Hub within the wider landscape and develop a sustainable model
At our October Strategy Group meeting, we considered the following model for how the Hub aims to make a difference.
We discussed:
- What we know so far about each of the assumptions behind this model
- What we need find out more about, to help us identify and prioritise potential improvements in 2023.
The group’s biggest priority was to gain a more comprehensive understanding of to what extent, and how, the benefits funders are seeking through their collaborations are being achieved.
In evaluating this, we will need to take into account not only the views of funders but also the perspectives of others such as charities who may be either positively or negatively impacted by whether and how funders collaborate. Please get in touch if you have an experience of funder collaboration you would like to share with us.
Our continued work to integrate the Hub into the wider landscape included presenting at the following events during October:
- UK Community Foundations conference
- Lloyds Bank Foundation’s Lessons for Funder Practice and strategy launch
- East Midlands Funders Forum
The Hub was represented at an ACF event on ‘Grant-making and the cost-of-living crisis’ and we continued to contribute information about relevant collaboration opportunities to ACF’s cost of living resources page.
We also co-hosted a funder event with Zoe Amar and Nissa Ramsay, exploring the findings of the 2022 Charity Digital Skills Report and its funders' pledge.
The reach of our main communication channels continued to grow in October:
- 6,657 website page views (+3.8% vs September)
- 805 newsletter recipients (+5.8% vs September)
- 1,874 Twitter followers (+2.1% vs September).
Previous monthly updates
Get in touch
We welcome all feedback on the Hub. Whether you're a funder, or anyone else with an interest in how funders can work together to make the world a better place, get in touch to let us know what we're doing well or what we can improve.
