Using data to drive change – how Paul Hamlyn are responding to the Racial Justice Audit
“‘There is a considerable increase in the proportion of funding awarded to projects by and for Black and Minoritised communities, which effectively tripled between 2020/21 and 2021/22.’”
This is from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation who have recently applied our racial justice audit tool to their UK grant-making in 2021/22.
This is the second annual audit, and the report compares the results of the audits from 2021/22 and 2020/21 to support the Foundation to consider the changes that have been made in their grant-making and to identify areas for further improvement.
Key findings
In total, 360 grants amounting to £29,694,261 were analysed in the 2021/22 audit. The report finds:
Sector organisations received a higher proportion of funding in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21
The funding gap for Black and Minoritised sector organisations in terms of grant size was halved between 2020/21 and 2021/22
By and for projects and sector organisations received half as much funding from invitation only funds than open funds
Projects to benefit Black and Minoritised communities (regardless of organisation type, mission or leadership) decreased by 9 percentage points
The ‘funding gap’ between the average non-emergency grant size and duration for Black and minoritised sector organisations compared to non-Black and minoritised sector organisations was notably reduced in 2021/22.
Lessons learned
While improvements in their open funds show that they are heading in the right direction in terms of racial justice funding, consideration of their invitation-only funds shows that there is still far to go to make their grant-making truly equitable for all organisations and applicants.
With these audit results at their disposal, they now move to consider how they can further action changes across their funds and their grantmaking practices to build on their modest progress so far.
Over the past two years, they have made a number of changes to the Arts Access and Participation Fund, introducing greater flexibility to what they’re able to fund including core funding, and offering calls for those thinking about applying.
Looking ahead
In terms of next steps, they continue to consider how they can do things differently to address historic underfunding and enact the shift in power that they know is needed. This will include how they might do more ‘on granting’ to extend the reach of their funding.
They are:
Exploring this way of funding through a grant made to Amal, to support the work they do to increase arts opportunities for Muslim communities. Amal will use part of their funding to ‘on-grant’ by giving smaller grants to community groups in Bradford and Birmingham who want to deliver co-created projects
Developing ways which people with lived experienced of the issues that they want to fund are made part of Foundation’s assessment processes
Continuing to monitor and reflect on grant-making data, seeking to address any areas of inequity and build on these small but important shifts.
‘We hope more funders will take part in the audit in the years ahead, helping us all get a better understanding of how the sector as a whole is performing and ultimately giving us data to help drive change’.
Read the report in full or access their blog, written by Ushi Bagga (Head of Programme – Arts) and Nina White (Data and Information Officer) .
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation welcome feedback on their plans and progress as well as their report published. You can get in touch with them at dei@phf.org.uk or complete this anonymous survey.
