Putting Good Ingredients in the Mix - Lessons and Opportunities for Place-based Working and Funding

Introduction

This research shows what we have learned about place-based funding. It shares lessons from real-life examples and combines them with findings from research and other funders. The report is aimed at funders interested in place-based approaches.

Findings

The research concluded that anyone interested in working in a place-based way should start by getting to know the history and background of their chosen area. This is because residents don’t trust organisations coming fom the outside.

The report also shows that:

• funders must listen deeply to the communities they want to work with and build on their existing strengths

• working ‘with’ people and not doing things ‘to’ them is essential

• it might be helpful to start small, trying different approaches

• it’s important to allow room for changes because things almost always take longer than anticipated

• it’s natural that some things will go wrong - long-term funding would allow time and space to reflect, rethink and change the direction