# Social justice funding still failing to shift power & resources to communities: report

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2023/10/30/social-justice-funding-still-failing-to-shift-power-resources-to-communities-report/
- Published: 2023-10-30T10:00:03+00:00
- Author: Melanie May

**Just under 6% of all foundation giving in the UK went to work tackling injustice
in 2021/22, research has found.**

The [Funding Justice 2 report](https://fundingjustice.civicpower.org.uk/), published
last week, was researched and written by Jon Cracknell at the Hour is Late and Eliza
Baring at the Civic Power Fund. It analyses 18,816 grants from 60 known social justice
funders, totalling £952.4 million and accounting for around 21% of UK foundation
giving in 2021/22. The report’s aim is to increase understanding of where social
justice funding is going and whether the balance is right.

The researchers allocated each of the social justice grants to one of four categories:
organising at the core, justice and power, advocating for change, and justice rather
than social change.

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#### Where the grants went

When analysing the grants, they found that in 2021/22:

 * 27% of grants from known social justice funders went towards work to tackle injustice–
   representing 5.7% of all UK foundation giving.

 * 1.6% of the grants analysed went towards ‘building people power through organising’–
   representing 0.3% of all UK foundation giving.

Looking in more detail at these grants, the researchers found that the dominant 
share of social justice funding in 2021/22 was focused on _“the final stages of 
social transformation… rather than the movements that make these changes possible
to begin with”._

Nearly a third of social justice grants went towards service delivery, while another
37% went to what it calls ‘inside game’ work in elite settings – work aimed at decision-
makers, but often excluding the communities both facing injustice and fighting to
end it. In fact, the research found that less than 10% of social justice funding
is going towards ‘outside game’ activities that excluded communities rely on to 
be heard.

In addition, nearly two thirds of social justice grants in the UK (63.4%) are focused
on work carried out at the national level. 

London receives the most funding on a per capita basis, with £407 of grants per 
100 people, with the five English regions at the bottom receiving less than £1 per
person in social justice grant funding. 

#### Grants spread ‘wide and thin’

Grants are also spread ‘wide and thin’ with the 2,773 grants awarded to 1,707 different
groups. On average, each organisation secured 1.6 grants. The median grant size 
was £48,923, and 360 of the grantees (21.1%) received £10,000 or less.

#### ‘Still a long way to go’

As a result, the report says, social justice funding is still failing to shift power
and resources to communities, and while _‘vital and promising debates are happening
in UK philanthropy,’_ there is still _‘a long way to go to ensure these debates 
translate into shifts felt by communities on the frontlines’_.

To help funders, it suggests a framework to use to analyse their giving, with key
questions to ask themselves including how they can use this framework to interrogate
their efforts to fund for social justice, and how they can use the data behind Funding
Justice 2 to work with other funders and be more intentional about allocating shared
resources in the pursuit of social justice.