Summary
Farming the Future is a pooled-fund and movement building organisation that uses participatory grant-making, sociocracy and trust-based philanthropy to support UK food and farming.
Aims and activities
Aims and questions
Aims and activities
Our vision is for a well-resourced, just transition of UK farming and food systems, centred on wellbeing for producers, people and planet. Our mission is to connect, strengthen and grow the agroecology and food sovereignty movement and create the enabling conditions for change by improving the flow of resources for connection and collaboration, through trust based funding.
We are open to funders joining, both large and small, and encourage donor partners to get involved in the collective if they have the time and interest.
Since 2019 we have distributed £2.6 million to 120 collaborations and pioneering projects involving over 150 organisations, using funds pooled together by more than 10 donors. Our pooled fund responds to changing needs and gaps in provision based on listening with our funded partners, and uses participatory grant-making with Ambassadors from the sector we support to resource the capacity to collaborate, convene and work in coalition. See our current grant rounds and previous grantees here.
Together we are:
- Increasing funding and support flowing to those who are shifting power into the hands of producers and communities – we aim to build our pooled fund to £1.5 million annually in the next 5 years
- Listening and responding to shared and emerging needs and using this to make the case to other funders for more trust-based funding for agroecology and food sovereignty in the UK.
How to get involved
If you are interested in exploring the link between your work and food and farming systems, supporting a just transition, or testing out more participatory funding practices then we would encourage you to get in touch with us to talk about ways we could collaborate. You can read our donor briefing deck, which outlines the many benefits of joining a pooled fund and introduces our Ambassadors. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact Bonnie Hewson, Director.
Who's involved
Who was involved
The following donors are currently involved: The A Team Foundation, The Roddick Foundation, Be the Earth Foundation, The Savitri Trust, The Kreitman Foundation, IG Advisors, National Lottery Community Fund, Esmee Fairbairn, John Ellerman.
Learning and Resources
We have shared some of our early learnings, as well as those of our grantees, on our blog.
Collaboration and Pooled Funding with Farming the Future
Lessons on UK Field Building from Farming the Future - Place Matters
