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 to 12 new partnerships a year and award £1 million to £20 million to each partnership for 1 to 5 years. We have £75 million available in financial year 2025 to 26 for our partnerships.

Our partnership criteria

We’ll give priority to organisations that best meet our partnership criteria. We’re looking for partnerships that demonstrate:

• Transformational change - potential to deliver significant change in a system or area of work that aligns with our community-led missions
• Values alignment - partner(s) share our values. Read about our equity-based approach to work on page 16 of our strategy for 2023 to 2030 (PDF 5.5 MB)
• Shared expectations - all partner(s) can add value to the partnership and partner(s) commit to set aside the time and resources required to make the partnership a success

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.

Criteria for transformational change

We will ask for more detail on the change you would like to partner with us to make.

We will prioritise partnering with others based on how much:

• the partnership focuses on delivering big and lasting change in a system or area of work that aligns with our missions and England priority outcomes.
• partner(s) can provide clear analysis of the system they would change. This should include evidence that change is needed and why now is the right time to do this. Partners should show the steps they will take to build momentum, even if full system change will take longer.
• partner(s) will bring networks that can work together to make system change happen. Together, partner(s) are already trusted by the decision-makers, practitioners and community leaders who might need to act differently'.

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.

Criteria for shared values

We will ask for more detail on your values, and those of any others in the partnership, and how you think they align with ours.

We will prioritise partnering with others based on how much:

• the values of all partner(s) are strongly aligned
• partner(s) have a strong track record of putting those values into action through their work
• partner(s) have a strong track record in taking an equity-based approach
• partner(s) have engaged with the people and communities who will benefit from the work and will involve the community throughout

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.

Criteria for shared expectations

We will ask for more detail on what each partner will commit to the partnership.

We will prioritise partnering with others based on how much:

• partner(s) have the skills, experience, capabilities and track record to add value to this work, and to support working together to bring about change. The partnership is mutually empowering.
• partner(s) can commit to set aside the time and resources required (including qualified staff) to make the partnership a success.

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:

• focusing on addressing health inequalities. 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.

Closed partnership opportunities

• Community Power
• You Decide
• Grant Holder Support