Unlocking systemic change led by communities: the Solidarity Fund

Across England, communities are working hard to tackle the root causes of poverty, disadvantage and discrimination. As part of our vision for funding in England, we want to invest in communities to go bigger and bolder with this work – and that’s why we are excited to announce the Solidarity Fund.

What is the Solidarity Fund?

Opening in June, the Solidarity Fund will make up at least 10% of our portfolio, starting with £25 million in the financial year 2025/26, rising to £50 million per year from 2026/27.

The Solidarity Fund will provide long-term core funding for up to ten years to organisations tackling the root causes of poverty, disadvantage and discrimination. In the first year, we expect to award funding to around ten organisations.

This fund is designed to strengthen community efforts by supporting long-term work that builds power, knowledge and solidarity that goes beyond a single place or group. Through flexible funding and collaboration, we aim to create lasting change.

Listening to communities to shape the Solidarity Fund

To ensure the Solidarity Fund reflects the priorities and realities of the communities it is designed for, we hosted a series of consultation events, engaging 91 organisations. The discussions helped us test ideas, identify challenges, and refine how the fund will work in practice.

The consultation included a wide range of organisations working closely with people facing inequality. We heard from local voluntary action networks, ethnic minority-led groups, women’s organisations, and organisations working across youth and creative engagement.

We brought together both well-established funders and equity-focused funding bodies, reflecting a shift towards long-term, strategic support rather than short-term interventions. Institutional funders also contributed, highlighting the role of public and philanthropic investment in supporting systemic change.

Many of the organisations we engaged with focus their efforts on shifting power, tackling structural inequality, and building community resilience – principles which are at the heart of the Solidarity Fund.

Designing our approach

The Solidarity Fund is designed to support organisations that are tackling inequality at its root, rather than just responding to its effects. In our consultation meetings, we shared our approach and the five key elements we will support through the fund: systemic change, lived experience leadership, practicing solidarity, building power, and cultivating knowledge. These principles guide our approach and will ensure that funding helps communities take the lead in shaping fairer systems.

Systemic change means addressing the deep-rooted structures and policies that keep people in poverty or facing discrimination. We want to support organisations that go beyond short-term fixes including on providing services, and focus on shifting power, reshaping decision-making, and creating long-term solutions.
Lived experience accountability ensures that those most affected by injustice have the power and resources to lead change. The Solidarity Fund will prioritise organisations where people with direct experience of the issues being tackled are in leadership positions, shaping solutions and influencing decisions.
Strengthening solidarity is about connecting issues and bringing people together to challenge inequality. We want to support organisations that recognise the interconnected nature of social injustices and work across different communities and organisations to build alliances for systemic change.
Building power within communities is essential to lasting change. This means ensuring people have the skills, confidence, and resources to organise, influence decisions, and challenge systems that affect their lives. We aim to support organisations that are helping people take collective action and strengthen their ability to shape their own futures.
Cultivating knowledge is about making learning useful for action. We are looking to fund organisations that generate and share knowledge in ways that grow community power, shift public understanding, and influence systems and decisions. This could include research, storytelling, or other forms of knowledge that help communities organise and advocate for change.

We invited feedback on how these five elements align with the work organisations are already doing and how they might be strengthened further.

By grounding our approach in these principles, we aim to fund work that is not just responding to inequality but actively transforming the systems that cause it.

What we heard: opportunities and strengths

Long-term, core funding is a game-changer. Organisations shared how existing funding models force them into short-term survival mode, preventing them from focusing on long-term solutions. The Solidarity Fund’s commitment to sustained, flexible investments a vital step towards changing how social impact is delivered.

The Solidarity Fund’s approach will allow organisations to focus on their mission, rather than adapting to restrictive project-based funding calls.

Many organisations valued the fund’s potential to support partnerships, knowledge-sharing, and collective learning, rather than reinforcing competition for short-term grants. Participants encouraged us to design funding approaches that support natural collaborations rather than forcing partnerships.

Organisations also valued our emphasis on tackling root causes of inequality rather than just responding to symptoms. Some suggested that clearer language and practical examples would help bring the concept to life. We will ensure that we provide clarity on what systemic change means while keeping definitions flexible for different approaches.

What happens next?

The insights from these discussions are not just shaping the Solidarity Fund but also influencing our wider approach to equity-based funding.

We are also considering how to create long-term relationships with funded organisations, moving beyond a traditional, transactional funding mechanism.

We recognise that many grassroots groups need additional support to access and manage long-term funding. We are exploring how best to provide infrastructure support, ensuring that organisations can focus on delivering impact rather than being burdened by complex administrative processes.

A fund built for the future

The Solidarity Fund is a bold step towards supporting systemic change in a way that shifts power to communities. It has been welcomed as a much-needed intervention, and we are grateful for the insights shared. This consultation has strengthened our understanding of how to ensure the fund is accessible, impactful, and rooted in lived experience.

This is just the beginning. By engaging with the organisations at the forefront of social change, we are offering a fund that is strategic, inclusive, and built to create lasting impact. We will continue to refine the fund’s design, ensuring it reflects the needs, ambitions, and leadership of the communities it serves.

Find out more and apply

Look out for the Solidarity Fund opening for applications at 10am on 11th June 2025.

In the meantime, you can sign up to one of four webinars taking place throughout June to find out more about the programme and what we expect from applications: