Partner with us
We know there is huge power in working with others and we cannot deliver our community-led missions alone. We want to work in partnership to make meaningful and lasting changes. We’re working towards our vision for funding in England, and want to go further than before, offering more than funding by making connections and building deep partnerships.
We will partner with others where we see potential to deliver significant change in a system or area of work that aligns with our community-led missions and England priority outcomes and that supports communities to:
- Come together, focusing on inclusive places, spaces and activities (either physical or virtual). Especially for communities where people are least able to come together.
- Help children and young people thrive, focusing on supporting babies, children, young people and their families to navigate key transitions in their lives.
- Be healthier, focusing on addressing health inequalities. And helping prevent poor health.
- Be environmentally sustainable, focusing on engaging with climate issues and having a positive environmental impact. And improving access to quality natural spaces.
You don’t have to partner with us to receive our grant funding. If what you need is grant funding to deliver your project in your community, you should apply through Reaching Communities or Awards for All. We have merged our previous partnerships funding with our Reaching Communities programme. Organisations who want to work in partnership with each other to deliver a project can apply there.
If you think a partnership with us will increase the impact of your work and you share our community-led missions and priority outcomes, then partnering with us might be right for you.
We expect to enter into 6-12 new partnerships a year and we expect to award £1m-£20m to each partnership for 1-5 years. £75m is available in financial year 2025/26 for our partnerships.
We will partner with others where we see:
- Transformational change - potential to deliver significant change in a system or area of work that aligns with our community-led missions
- Values alignment - partners who share our values and take an equity-based approach to delivering their work
- Shared expectations - clear rationale for why you want to partner with us that aligns with our partnerships definition and principles.
Transformational change
We want to focus our partnerships on work that will make big and lasting change. This means change in a system or area of work that improves our priority England outcomes in a way that lasts for a long time.
We expect our partnerships to focus on the root causes of social issues, work to prevent problems happening in the first place and to involve communities and organisations working together.
This is sometimes called ‘systems change’. This includes changing rules, habits and how people work together. Not just helping people with the issues they’re facing now.
We're looking for partners who share our values
You’ll need to share our values and take an equity-based approach to the delivery of your work.
By this we mean recognising that not every community starts with the same resources. And that to make things fairer, we should support those that need it most.
Shared expectations
We know successful partnership working means shared expectations of partners. We will partner where the expectations of all partners are clear from the start.
We’ll work together to agree a shared goal that aligns with our vision, missions and priority England outcomes.
Partnerships opportunities
All partnerships we enter into will have the potential to deliver significant change aligned with our community-led missions, but we are currently seeking partners in some specific priority areas.
Our next opportunities will focus on 3 of our England priority outcomes. We’ll expect the partnership to support communities to:
- help children and young people thrive
- be healthier
- be environmentally sustainable.
Help children and young people thrive, by:
- developing positive social and emotional skills.
Support communities to be healthier, by:
- addressing health inequalities that are caused by racism and discrimination. And helping prevent poor health.
Support communities to be environmentally sustainable, by:
- empowering people to engage with climate issues and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate.
- taking part in activities to make a positive environmental impact. Like reducing carbon emissions or creating space for wildlife.
- helping communities to have access to nature. By increasing the amount and quality of natural space for wildlife. Meaning that people can experience nature around them, and that more varieties of wildlife can thrive.
We will share more information about these opportunities soon, including how to apply.