Summary
The Regenerative Futures Fund is a pioneering initiative aimed at tackling the root causes of interconnected challenges of poverty, racism, and the climate emergency in Edinburgh.
Aims and activities
Aims and questions
Aims and activities
The Regenerative Futures Fund is a £15 million, ten-year pooled fund designed to empower local communities and organisations to drive lasting change. What sets this fund apart is its commitment to putting decision-making power in the hands of those most affected by poverty and racism. It has been collaboratively designed between 2022 - 2024 by community organisations, campaigners with experience of poverty, funders and the local authority.
The Challenge
Edinburgh, like many cities, faces systemic issues of poverty and racism, which are deeply intertwined with environmental challenges. Funding programmes don’t always create the conditions for addressing deep root causes due to short timescales, restricted single-issue funds, who designs funding programmes and who sets the vision.
Our Solution
The Regenerative Futures Fund will achieve its aims through:
- Co-design and leadership by individual experts with lived experience, local community organisations, and anti-racism campaigners
- A focus on funding collectives and organisations addressing the root causes of poverty, racism and climate change
- A minimum threshold of 50% of funded organisations having diverse leadership with a focus on anti-racism in the context of ending poverty
- A long-term funding model, providing unrestricted grants of up to £100,000 per year for between 10-15 organisations over 10 years, enabling deep, systemic work.
Why a Pooled Fund
A pooled fund is where multiple funders contribute money and delegate grantmaking authority into a separate entity to advance a particular objective or strategy. Identified benefits according to research by Joseph Rowntree Foundation: achieve strategic impact; de-risk by funding collaboratively; work in a way that is flexible; share learning and build expertise; field-build and expand the pipeline.
Lasting Change
The Regenerative Futures Fund aims to achieve lasting change by:
- Shifting decision making power to individuals with experience of poverty and racism
- Empowering community-based organisations to implement solutions tailored to their communities
- Fostering a powerful collective voice advocating for the need to address the root causes of poverty, racism and climate change and to focus on a just transition
- Building a resilient network of organisations capable of collaborating on innovative approaches that tackle the root causes of issues
- Aligning with a recommendation from the Edinburgh Poverty Commission to ‘harness resources to develop an innovation fund to resource solutions to ending poverty in the city’
The Regenerative Futures Fund presents a unique opportunity for funders, philanthropists and corporate partners to support and learn with others to enable – with money and knowledge - a long-term community-led approach to systemic change.
How to get involved
The Regenerative Futures Fund has already demonstrated remarkable success in its development phase, securing significant financial commitments from prominent funders, including:
· £1 million from Turn2us Edinburgh Trust (£100,000 a year for 10 years)
· £250,000 from Foundation Scotland
· £2 million from The National Lottery Community Fund (£200,000 a year for 10 years)
· £500,000 from Esmee Fairbairn Foundation (£100,000 a year for 5 years)
· £1 million from The Robertson Trust (£100,000 a year for 10 years)
· £1 million from City of Edinburgh Council (£100,000 approved and a commitment for £100,000 a year for 10 years)
· £15,000 from William Grant Foundation (£15,000 focused on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning)
Currently committed £5,765,000 – which means that Phase One of the programmes will launch in early 2025. The collaborative of funders is seeking to move an additional £9.24m towards the programme to reach £15 million by the end of 2025 to launch the the ambitious 10-year programme from Winter 2025/2026.
We invite you to join our coalition of funders, corporate partners, and philanthropists committed to a just and sustainable Edinburgh.
By contributing to the Regenerative Futures Fund, you will:
- Invest in a community-led, systemic approach to tackling poverty, racism, and climate change
- Be part of a ground breaking initiative putting power and resources directly into the hands of communities
- Support a robust, transparent and accountable funding model with a detailed theory of change and a comprehensive evaluation framework
- Join other funders in a learning collaborative to share and amplify knowledge and expertise on systemic, place-based social change
- Contribute to building a more just, equitable, and sustainable future for Edinburgh
- Leave a legacy by empowering communities to create a brighter future for generations.
Contact Leah Black, Co-Head of Regenerative Futures Fund, Foundation Scotland if you would like to get involved.
Who's involved
Who was involved
The development of the fund has been enabled through a collaboration between many people and organisations.
The fund has been co-designed by a range of individual citizens and campaigners, people representing community organisations, funders as well as those representing local and national government. This means that we have had the voices and experiences of a diverse range of people included in the process from the beginning.
The project was led by a seconded project lead working alongside a freelance team of facilitators and consultants between 2022 - 2024. The organisations supporting the secondment and hosting of the project play a key role. Around 100 people have contributed their resources – time and money - towards this development phase.
In 2024 the project moved to a new host organisation and a small team was established to lead the fund into its operational phase from 2025 onwards.
