Influence that changes systems
Evidence, collective action and strong relationships across sectors can shift the policies and systems that shape how funding works and how decisions are made. Funders Together draws on this to influence and create the change we believe is possible.
Our influence comes from working across the system, connecting communities, funders and decision-makers to create change that lasts.
Why now
This is a critical moment for influence.
Across the UK, new decision-making structures are emerging through devolution, creating opportunities to shape how resources are invested and how local priorities are addressed. At the same time, interest grows in the role funding can play in wider systems change, and how different forms of capital, knowledge and influence can work together to tackle complex societal challenges.
These changes create opportunities to ensure that funding systems are informed by the experiences of communities, grounded in evidence and designed to support long-term change.
We believe there is an important role for organisations that can connect local insight with regional and national conversations. By bringing together learning from across our networks, we can help ensure that new structures and approaches are shaped by what works in practice and by the experiences of the people and places they are intended to serve.
“As power shifts and new systems emerge, we have an opportunity to ensure decisions are shaped by evidence, collaboration and the experiences of communities.”
More about the Collaboration Circle
A track record of influencing policy and practice
While our approach to influencing continues to evolve, it is built on a strong track record.
For many years, we have convened funders, partners and communities around shared challenges, helping to develop new approaches to collaboration, place-based giving, open data and funding practice. Through this work, we have helped shape conversations about how funding can be more effective, equitable and responsive.
Our influence is already visible at multiple levels. In London, we work alongside partners including the Greater London Authority, London Councils and local partnerships which have directly shaped the implementation of programmes which have brought new investment to London's communities - from the post-covid Recovery Board mission areas, to pan-London grant programmes, to borough-based strategy.
Nationally, we have contributed learning and evidence to discussions about the future of philanthropy, including through involvement in the National Philanthropy Working Group, and on policy areas from child poverty to youth policy. Through our work on place-based giving and collaboration, we have helped demonstrate how local experience can inform national thinking.
And as a result of working with government, the 360Giving Data Standard is the approved open standard for government grants publication. By 2026, central government departments had published grants data using the standard, for more than 470,000 government grants worth over £274 billion into the publicly accessible dataset.
“We are a trusted and connected voice that brings together insights from funders, civil society, communities and policymakers to help shape both funding practice and public policy.”
“Collaboration Circle is providing a neutral space where new and innovative ideas, practices and culture can thrive, outside the limits of entrenched barriers that may exist within individual partner organisations. The collaborations have the potential to generate new learning that can help transform the wider grant-making landscape.”
What this means for the future
Funders Together exists to be a stronger and more authoritative voice on the issues that matter to funders, communities and partners. That authority is only meaningful if it is grounded in trust, built through genuine relationships and honest about what the evidence shows, including where the sector needs to change.
This means speaking with the sector, not for it. It means creating space for shared learning, drawing on diverse perspectives, and being brave about naming where progress is needed and what transformative action looks like across policy and practice. It means not just championing more open, trusting and equitable approaches to funding, but testing them ourselves and using what we learn to influence others.
Our ambition is to connect local, regional and national conversations more effectively, so that insights generated through practice can shape policy, and policy is informed by the realities of communities and organisations on the ground. We want to help shape conversations about philanthropy, place, devolution and collaboration at a moment when new structures and real opportunities are emerging.
As we develop this work, we will continue to build on the foundations that make influence possible: strong relationships, robust evidence, practical learning and a genuine commitment to collaboration. Brought together, these give us the platform to help create a funding ecosystem and policy environment that is more connected, more responsive and better able to deliver lasting change.
Place-based giving schemes have distributed over 25 million pounds to grassroots groups
Place-based giving schemes have engaged more than 13,000 people through collaborative projects and funding rounds
Place-based giving schemes have engaged more than 13,000 people through collaborative projects and funding rounds
Explore the work
- Collaboration Circle: pooled funding and shared decision-making
- Place based change and a national vision for growing philanthropy
- Propel: long-term collaborative funding for systems change in London
- 10 years of open grants data and using it to influence change
- London Funders: enabling funder collaboration
- The possible, not the perfect: learning from funder responses to emergencies (IVAR)
