The Regenerative Futures Fund is a pioneering ten-year community fund for Edinburgh that puts decision-making power into the hands of those who are most often excluded. Leah Black, Co-Head of the RFF, shares more about the fund and invites others to join.
Edinburgh, like many cities, faces serious and systemic issues of poverty and racism, and these are deeply connected with environmental challenges. 80,000 people and 1 in 5 children currently live in poverty in the wealthiest city in the country (Edinburgh poverty Commission, 2021). And like many other places, we have a wealth of incredible, passionate local organisations that have time after time proven they are well-placed and able to provide the solutions needed but, as we all know, are seriously constrained by the existing funding model. Short timescales, restricted single-issue support and overall, a lack of trust and understanding in organisations delivering on the ground. Traditional funding programmes do little to address the root causes of poverty and inequality; a radical shake up is urgently needed.
As a response to this, communities and funders in Edinburgh have been working on something that we think will be of interest to those who have either already embraced the idea of funder collaboration and pooled funds, or are starting to dip their toes in the water.
The Regenerative Futures Fund is a pioneering ten-year community fund for Edinburgh that puts decision-making power into the hands of those who are most often excluded. It supports approaches that improve the lives of local people living in poverty and experiencing racism, and that contribute towards a just, green transition, by enabling equity and power-sharing.
The Regenerative Futures Fund is collaboratively designed by local people in community organisations, campaigners, funders and the local authority. This £15 million, ten-year pooled fund presents a unique opportunity to support and learn with others to enable a long-term community-led approach to systemic change.
We are committed to meaningful, long term and unrestricted funding. This means that organisations will be given the freedom to think and plan for the long-term.
The fund is intentionally a pooled fund and is specifically designed to step into the space of long term, unrestricted funding, placing trust in communities that they themselves can allocate resources where they are most needed, and where they will make the biggest impact.
Funders Collaborative Hub is such a fantastic and useful resource for funders to talk about their collaborations, their intentions to collaborate and to learn from others and we have been inspired by the many collaborations we have read about through this platform.
Regenerative Futures Fund has also been informed and inspired by the research funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation on pooled funds which acknowledges that many funders are aware that the problems they seek to address are too vast and complex to be solved alone, and that re-distributing power is necessary for creating lasting and meaningful social change.
The first phase of the fund brings together long-term commitments from some of the biggest funders in the country, contributing to and collaborating on the pooled fund, including Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The National Lottery Community Fund, The Robertson Trust, Turn2us Edinburgh Trust, Foundation Scotland and crucially City of Edinburgh Council, but completely removes them from the decision-making process. Instead, they are giving local individuals and organisations the agency and the resources they need to create a brighter future for all residents of Edinburgh.
With nearly £6 million pledged to date, the team is actively inviting others to join the impressive coalition of funders, corporate partners, and philanthropists committed to a just and sustainable Edinburgh to fully realise the ambitious 10-year programme.
Eligibility checkers and application details for both the lived experience panel and interested organisations are now live on the Regenerative Futures Fund website.
Any funders interested in a conversation – with the team or any of the funders involved to date - about contributing to the collaborative pooled fund, learning together from a model which could be adapted for other places, and in building a more just, equitable, and sustainable future for Edinburgh should get in touch with Leah Black, Co-Head of Regenerative Futures Fund.
