How Islington Giving are learning from putting residents at the heart of their grant-making
Earlier in the summer, Islington Giving published two reports drawing together learning from their residents’ panels.
Since their first Young Grant Makers’ (YGM) panel in 2018, 81 residents (across a spectrum of ages, backgrounds, and experiences) have taken part in grant making via one of their resident-led panels. They have awarded £870,000 in total so far.
What is a resident-led panel?
Residents’ panels are at the heart of a process often referred to as participatory grant-making (PGM). The main aim of residents’ panels is to share power with local people most affected by the issues being addressed, by engaging them in the decision-making.
As part of the process at Islington Giving, a group of residents are supported by their experienced staff team. Using their own experiences and through discussion, challenge and learning, the panel will draft a funding call to tell local groups the kind of work they are interested in supporting. Groups can then apply for funding, if they think their work matches the priorities of the panel. Panel members will receive and discuss applications, and meet people from the shortlisted projects, before making final decisions about which projects to support. With residents’ panels Islington Giving is contributing to vision of a more inclusive and fairer borough.
This year Islington Giving created a brand new resident panel created for older residents (the Golden Grant Makers programme), expanding the ways people can get involved. They also ran their fifth Young Grant Makers’ panel and residents helped make decisions about their micro-grants programme, Make It Happen, which gives residents up to £500 to do something fun and interesting in their community.
Below they share their top insights from this year’s programmes. For in-depth analysis and lessons they are taking into the next resident-led programmes from September, click on the full reports below.
“This programme gives us a form of responsibility that shows society why young people should have some impact in decision making, as sooner or later, this will be our world for us to run.” Young Grant Maker, 2022/23
Young Grant Makers
- Continuity of funding – there is an ongoing challenge between long-term core funding and shorter-term project funding and whilst panels held general conversations about the pros and cons, the decision-making was left entirely to Young Grant Makers.
- Outreach to new services –organisations need more time to apply for funding due to holidays and time off. In addition, spending more time to reach out to organisations individually is also beneficial.
- Age range – working to include the views and experiences of young people from across the age range 16 to 24 can be a challenge, but also rewarding.
- Offering anonymous feedback and regular questionnaires throughout the programme
- Managing expectations or limiting administrative burden on applications – local VCS (Voluntary & Community Sector) groups have limited capacity and are under huge pressure.
Golden Grant Makers
- Panel recruitment – more thought is needed to cast the net wide to attract panel members and ensure diversity in the panel.
- Thinking about how the process is promoted in relation to payment, and being flexible on timing so that it works for everyone.
- Continuing to prioritise a safe and respectful environment – whatever the process, whoever is involved, creating safe spaces to ensure free debate as well as to challenge conscious and unconscious bias.
- Application processes and considering alternative application methods (for panel members and applicants) – so these are as simple as possible and ensure a tight focus on the funding criteria to keep application numbers manageable (for applicant groups, as well as the panel).
To read more about Islington’s Giving learning, download their reports below.
*the original version of this blog appeared on Islington Giving’s website June 2023 and this slightly shortened version is reproduced here with their permission