Many of the complex problems faced by people and communities have their basis in psychological trauma. As knowledge and understanding of this increases, support is transforming to recognise the impact of trauma and to create more psychologically informed environments which promote recovery.
Drawing on our many years of experience as grantmakers at Homeless Link, and seeing the need for this shift, Kate Moralee and I understood that trauma is not just something service providers need to understand - it also affects how funders approach their work. How funders design programmes, how long they fund for and the expectations they set of the charities they support are all important considerations. Too often, funders lack an understanding of the complexities of working with people with multiple needs and may expect too much from short-term grants, without recognising the slower, often non-linear progress involved in trauma recovery and the time and skills it requires. Without a trauma-informed lens, funders also risk designing programmes that do harm by re-traumatising or disempowering the very people they intend to support.
This realisation was the spark for the Trauma Informed Grantmaking Community of Practice (CoP). We saw a need to raise awareness and create a space where funders could learn, share and support each other in developing trauma-informed approaches. The aim was to explore what good trauma-informed grantmaking looks like, how to make it more mainstream, and what support funders need to start or deepen this way of working. We began by speaking to a small group of funders and presenting at the Grant Funders Network in September 2023. We then set up a WordPress page and held our first CoP meeting, with input from two funders as speakers, in January 2024. Around forty participants from twenty-seven funding bodies attended, including trusts and foundations, local government, and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime.
Interest in the CoP grew quickly. We now have around 80 funders from across the UK as members, with CoP meetings taking place online quarterly for 90 minutes. The space is deliberately informal and reflective, allowing funders to share practice, discuss challenges, and explore how trauma-informed principles, such as safety, trust, empowerment, and collaboration, apply to grantmaking. We have also partnered with others exploring similar ground, including the Grant Funders Network, Corra Foundation, and Paul Hamlyn Foundation, who are examining their own grantmaking through a trauma-informed lens.
One of the most important things we have learned is that you do not have to be an expert in trauma to fund in a trauma-informed way. What matters most is curiosity to understand the impact of trauma, compassion for both frontline practitioners and service users, and a willingness to apply the principles. Even small changes, such as how application questions are phrased, specifically funding trauma-informed training or how monitoring processes are designed, can make a significant difference to how safe and valued grantees feel.
You do not have to be an expert in trauma to fund in a trauma-informed way. What matters most is curiosity to understand the impact of trauma, compassion for both frontline practitioners and service users, and a willingness to apply the principles.
The Funders Collaborative Hub has played a huge role in amplifying our work and raising awareness. From the start, it has provided a recognised, credible platform where we can share events and blogs. Hosting our collaboration on the Hub gave us immediate legitimacy and, because people trust the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF), funders could see it was worth joining. Around 70% of those who have joined the CoP found us through the Hub, which has been crucial in helping us make connections and spread the word.
The team at ACF have been consistently helpful and proactive, reaching out to update our page, promote events, and share content across their channels. Their support has been instrumental in helping us grow.
We have a small organising committee and have welcomed two newer members Rowan Anderson from Corra Foundation and Jane Whitworth from Inspiring Scotland. We take turns to set up and chair meetings and write blogs, but like any voluntary initiative, our biggest challenge has been capacity and resource. We have been invited to share our work at various events and through collaborations, including BBC Children in Need and Lloyds Bank Foundation. This shows that awareness of this approach is growing and that demand for guidance on trauma-informed grantmaking is high. However, developing detailed toolkits or training materials would require more time and funding than we currently have.
We would like to move funders further along this journey so that trauma-informed practice is not seen as just another tick-box exercise, but as something embedded and complementary to practices such as participatory grantmaking, co-production, lived experience, and diversity, equity and inclusion. It needs to be understood as a holistic, human-centred approach that shapes culture, relationships, and values across every stage of funding.
Looking forward, we'd like to see trauma-informed approaches rooted in local government commissioning and wider systems change. We plan to continue our regular meetings and to explore themes in more depth, such as how trauma-informed grantmaking plays out in sectors like youth work, mental health, or support for refugees. We are also exploring ways to pool funding or seek external support to make this a properly resourced space. This could include developing a UK-wide implementation plan to help funders embed trauma-informed practice more systematically.
Above all, what continues to inspire us is the genuine interest and energy of the group. Our members bring curiosity, humility and a desire to do things better. Together, we are not just sharing theory - we are slowly changing how funding is understood and practised. That is what trauma-informed grantmaking should do: build awareness, foster connection, and create services that offer the time, space and capacity needed for longer, more empowering recovery journeys that heal rather than harm, and that sit alongside more relational, inclusive, and participatory approaches.
