Published in An Archive of my work whilst at The National Lottery Community Fund·PinnedThe Cover Story for this archiveI’ve just finished three years at The National Lottery Community Fund where I worked from November 2018 until November 2021. …Home5 min read
Jul 24What if you got to ask funders questions?A visit to Civic Square. Early this year I wrote a blog post that was about funding the third horizon with what I hoped might be some helpful prompt questions for funders to ask themselves. This morning I got to visit the Civic Square crew in Birmingham who alongside Huddle…Philanthropy5 min read
Feb 9Questions about work and my time in 2022I think it will take me some time to work out what I want to do longer-term for work. I’m still recovering, reflecting and like many others, figuring out how to make sense of these times and where I can be most useful. One thing I am sure of though…Philanthropy5 min read
Jan 23Funding the Third HorizonBack in September 2021 I co-hosted one of the Philea Community of Practice sessions I run. The focus of the conversation was to explore what it means to fund the ‘third horizon.’ Obviously the perfect guest speaker for this was Graham Leicester. It was a rich discussion so I wanted…Philanthropy9 min read
Jan 17Asking your friends what they needThis was too long for a tweet but maybe too short for a blog! I wanted to share it though. Friendship is the most important thing to me. I cherish my friends and take the practice of friendship very much to heart. The pandemic changed what’s been possible and whilst…Friendship2 min read
Jan 9Starting further upstream — in the soil.In my last few weeks at TNLCF I co-wrote a blog that highlighted the role participatory grantmaking could play in ‘levelling up’ — explored here. …Philanthropy5 min read
Jan 9Change happens if our collective imagination changes.Sophia shared a few weeks back about the work I’ll be doing with JRF and with a growing group of partners. I’m really glad that a foundation like JRF is investing in this field and especially at this time. My journey to this work I was thinking back to where this work started for me…Funding9 min read
Jan 9Emerging Futures — patterning the third horizonThe Emerging Futures Fund, that we set up at TNLCF in Spring 2020, in that first wave of the pandemic, is one of the programmes I get asked most about, so I thought I’d do a quick summary of things I learnt. For those not familiar with the programme, it…Funding8 min read
Dec 23, 2021Dark Matter of Funding — Session 4“The definition of impact that has that legitimacy to say this is a good future, this is a bad future — how do you track the social legitimacy of that? I don’t know what that future looks like, so I think we’re bridging into the fog, an unknown landscape and…Philanthropy4 min read
Dec 23, 2021Dark Matter of Funding — Session 3In the third session of Reconsidering the Dark Matter of Funding, we continued exploring questions of impact, accountability, measurement and evidence. What do they mean? Are these framings still fit for purpose in a world where we are increasingly aware of the centrality of complexity and entanglement? What if…Philanthropy6 min read