Our work
Funding areas
The Trust undertakes some international support such as its long-standing partnership with Magic Bus which has programmes supporting the poorest children across India on a journey from childhood to livelihood. However, the vast majority of the Trust’s funding is aimed at supporting UK charities delivering UK-based activity.
The Trust has provided support across a wide range of areas over the years. Current activity is focused on 5 main areas:
Impact-lead approach
The defining principle of any funding decision BLFCT makes is that it is driving positive social impact. It doesn’t mean we don’t take risks or that we are afraid to fail, but the possibility of creating positive social impact must be the very first consideration with any grant.
In many cases impact is established and defined which allows charities to measure and communicate it clearly. We build relationships with our charity partners to make sure that we understand impact levels and can add additional support if we see opportunities to help them deliver further impact.
In some cases impact is harder to measure and clarify, especially for newer organisations. The relationship approach we take allows us to appreciate this and to understand where impact is occurring in a less clear way or where it is likely to result from continued activity. We are happy to consider funding these situations, often helping organisations to achieve proof of concept and access wider funding routes and ultimately to achieve even greater impact.
Flexible
We recognise our position in the funding hierarchy and that, as a family trust, we have an innate flexibility that some other funders don’t have. We try to lean into this and leverage it so as to work best for our partners.
Trust-based
We seek to work alongside organisations that we trust to manage our funding most effectively. We don’t ask for long reports, feel a need to make regular visits or be consulted on operational decisions. We recognise that we are the experts on providing the funding but that our partners are the experts on delivering the impact.
Partnership
Our aim with any grant is to see if we can build a long-term trusted partnership. We actively seek out partners who we think are creating positive impact and who we believe we can work with for years and across many grant cycles. We like the principles set out in IVAR’s 8 commitments.
In keeping with this approach we aim as quickly as possible to get to a position where we can offer partners unrestricted multi-year funding. This doesn’t always happen immediately – we often offer initial funding on a short-term restricted basis as we find it allows us to get to understand an organisation better and, between us, work out if we can build an impactful partnership.
Proactive
BLFCT undertakes its activity proactively, directly sourcing charities and organisations to partner with. The Trust does not accept any unsolicited applications.