Camden Giving launched in 2017, and has awarded over £5.2m to local organisations since then. It is a pioneer of participatory grant making, and it works with local businesses to match volunteers with local organisations and supports employment programmes for local young people.
Camden Giving is an independent charity . It has a Board of 11 trustees and three advisors, including people from big and small businesses, the voluntary and public sector, and specialists in diversity and inclusion and fundraising.
A recent skills and experience audit asked ‘Would you describe yourself as having lived experience of the inequality Camden Giving is overcoming’ and the answer from all Board members was a resounding no. The Board recruited three new trustees who bring, along with other professional skills and expertise, a deep understanding of the issues Camden Giving exists to address.
Director Natasha Friend said: "The Board has become stronger now that it contains diversity of experience". New trustee Hafsa Mohamed is a Global Development MSc student at UCL and has lived in Camden her whole life, she wrote:
You might think that home is a place, but it’s really a feeling. A safe space to grow without the weight of worry and the pressure of making mistakes. A place to talk to someone, maybe someone going through what you’re going through. Something to look forward to. I didn’t get that when I was younger. I joined Camden Giving wanting to give back to my own community but really, it’s giving me the chance to get what I never had vicariously through everyone else. Being a trustee means you hold the responsibility to help govern and support the direction of the charity. It’s given me the power to help make meaningful decisions. It really does feel like the best place to start making a change is at home.