Rooted in Place, Powered by Community
Over 16 years, 27 Place-Based Giving schemes have raised more than £92 million and created new ways for communities, funders and local partners to shape change together. Our new report shares the learning.
Today we are proud to launch Transforming Places Together: Learning from 16 Years of Place-Based Giving, bringing together the experience, stories and learning of people and communities across our Place-Based Giving network.
What began with Islington Giving in 2010 has grown into a network of 27 giving schemes across London, Bedford and Manchester. Along the way, residents, funders, businesses, voluntary organisations and public bodies have found their own ways of working to strengthen the places they care deeply about. Together, giving schemes have raised more than £92 million for their communities. They are part of a much wider field of place-based activity across the UK, and we share this learning as one contribution to a growing body of evidence for community-led change, to connect what is being learned across places and sectors.
We are publishing this report at a time of renewed interest in community power, participation and local decision-making. Many of the challenges communities face are interconnected and are rarely resolved by any one organisation acting alone. As Funders Together Chief Executive James Banks sets out, this calls for institutions to work alongside communities rather than act on their behalf.
Transforming Places Together looks at what has helped this work to take root, through four themes: how shared purpose forms, how power can shift, how relationships make collective action possible, and how resources can reach communities in ways that reflect local priorities. Stories from Brent to Bedford show what this looks like in practice.
“Place-based giving matters to me because, as someone who has lived in our borough for many years, I have seen first-hand how much of it has transformed. People who live in a place often see beyond what systems and structures can see. They see the needs around them because they live them, they experience them, and they understand their communities.”
— Wunmi Oyewole, founder of Radiant Ambitions CIC and a local resident in Barking and DagenhamOur learning does not set out a single model for how Place-Based Giving works. Each scheme has grown in its own way, shaped by local history, relationships and priorities. Much of the learning has come from people trying and testing new approaches, adapting and finding what works where they are.
Importantly, that work takes time. City Bridge Foundation's long-term commitment has helped Place-Based Giving take root across London, alongside the contribution of the many residents, practitioners, funders and partners involved.
“Long-term investment in Place-Based Giving has enabled communities and local partners to work differently together.”
— Simon Latham, Managing Director of City Bridge FoundationThis publication also marks a new chapter for the Centre for Place-Based Giving, now part of Funders Together. The Centre has been shaped through conversations with practitioners, funders and community leaders across the UK, including at Common Ground, our national convening in May 2026, and builds upon the work of London’s Giving, which supported the approaches of giving schemes across the capital for more than a decade.
The Centre will take the Place-Based Giving movement forward nationally, connecting learning between places, strengthening practice and building the evidence needed to attract further investment in community-led change.
We hope this learning is useful both as a record of what has been built and as an invitation to reflect on the opportunities for your own place or organisation, and to connect with others committed to this work. We also hope it strengthens the case for sustained investment in Place-Based Giving, and encourages funders and other partners to consider how they might support the next chapter of this work.