Flexible funding

We are calling for funders to adopt more open and trusting practices that make life easier for those they fund.

Our ambition

We want funders to make grants in a way that reflects the realities facing charities now and for the foreseeable future.

Eight commitments

We worked with charities and funders to design eight commitments to managing grants and relationships in a way that reflects funders’ confidence in and respect for the organisations they fund.

Holding funders to account

Meet the charities holding funders to account

We want this to be more than a badge that sits on people’s websites. So, this autumn we’re working with charities to hold funders to account on the progress they’ve made.

Open Link

10 actions to improve charities’ funding experience

We started by asking 1,200 charities what would help to reduce the time, effort and stress of applying for and managing grants. Read what they said.

Open Link

Refresh your commitments

If you’ve been signed up to Open and Trusting for over a year, you can refresh your commitments by clicking this box and entering the unique code that we sent you via email. 

Open Link

The eight commitments

Over 100 grantmakers have signed up to our eight commitments to funding charities in an open and trusting way. We hold regular meetings for people to reflect on and develop their practice, and are working on a way for charities to hold open and trusting grantmakers to account.

Open and trusting grantmakers:

Our strategic aims, size, and governance are very different. But we all believe that how we do it matters: who we reach, how we judge applications, the kind of funding we give and the relationships we make.

When funders sign up to our community, they explain how they’ll be working towards each of the commitments. Click on a logo to find out more.

Steve Morgan Foundation.
Comic Relief logo.
Forever Manchester logo.
William Grant Foundation logo.
Sir George Martin Trust.
Joffe Charitable Trust logo.
Cambridgeshire Community Foundation

Why it matters:

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