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Getting the principles right

The London’s Giving team have identified five principles which define what a PBGS is, and our governance guidance aims to help schemes turn these into action. They are:

1. Everyone has something to give

A PBGS should bring together people with different perspectives.

  • Partnerships need diverse experience and shared values of social justice and social change. Partners should include socially committed businesses, which can change the culture of a partnership and help it to become entrepreneurial.
  • PBGSs need people with energy who care deeply about their place.
  • A PBGS can’t just be ‘another grant maker’. PBGS should ask themselves what is the mechanism for giving time and talents? Do we have capacity or focus? How is business volunteering coordinated, how do individuals volunteer?

2. Shared understanding of local aspirations and needs

This is the glue that keeps partnerships together. 

  • A strong evidence base is one of the building blocks to success, but evidence only gets you so far. PBGS need to continually ask, what is important to residents now?
  • Partnerships need to reflect current concerns, and not those of specific funders/ businesses/individuals within the partnership
  • Different perspectives should be heard in all decision-making structures. This is critical when maintaining a continued understanding of local need. 

3. Listening to local people and involving them

PBGS are clear that traditional decision-making power needs to be relinquished and redistributed within communities themselves.

  • PBGS champion different approaches to listening and involving people. Delegating power often involves co-creating new decision-making structures for grant programmes.
  • PBGS mechanisms respond differently to their locality but all should keep decision making close to residents with wider aspirations and outcomes around empowerment than simply funding individual organisations.

4. Collaboration

Collaboration is at the heart of a PBGS - giving away power or sharing power in new ways.

  • Collaboration requires trusting relationships between partners. This can mean initial ambiguity, and it takes time for people to work together. However, an investment in relationship-building will ensure that partnerships last.
  • Partnerships require continuous work, which needs to be baked into governance structures from the start.

5. Independence

Independence gives PBGSs a strong identity. It means all partners have an equal voice. It allows partnerships to talk about issues that otherwise may not be addressed and to take risks.

  • Independence needs to be enshrined in governance by including different voices at the table and in decision-making structures.
  • Councils have been instrumental in developing some PBGS. They are key influencers. But they need to step back to allow true independence which will foster community confidence in the scheme.
  • Host organisations can offer PBGS leadership, time and resources. If a host can undertake administration, partnerships can focus on identifying priorities and driving change. 
  • Transparency about who the decision makers are, with clear written responsibilities, ensures that independence is not compromised. 

Underpinning all of these principles is the necessity to address issues of equity, diversity and inclusion. It is not possible to build an organisation which gives resources and voice to local people equitably when its decision makers are only from one part of that community, or to include everyone when structures and processes are designed by and for one group.

It is not easy to address deep-rooted inequality. PBGSs can start by making equity, diversity and inclusion an explicit aim, opening conversations with their stakeholders, being transparent about what is working well and what isn’t, and remaining ready to learn. For more guidance and inspiration see London Funders’ list of resources on Equity and Inclusion, and Camden Giving's Racial Justice Strategy