2020/21 AUDIT RESULTS
Cohort one and two
We designed a simple audit tool to enable funders to analyse their portfolios, and to help them develop targets and strategies to ensure they are properly supporting race equality work.
The audit asks funders four questions about each grant:
Is the grant-holder’s mission and purpose to support Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities and is it led by the communities it seeks to support?
Is the grant intended to benefit Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities?
What type of work will the grant be used for (for example services, buildings, campaigning)?
Is it aimed at the root causes of inequality or at alleviating the consequences?
The audit gives funders a snapshot of their current portfolio and will support greater transparency of current foundation expenditure. It is also intended to be used by the Alliance as a baseline against which to measure progress in achieving our aims, and to better our understanding of racial justice funding.
This page reflects all audit results up to November 2021.
20 funders who audited either a sample, or their entire portfolios, shared their data with the Funders for Race Equality Alliance. In all, they audited over £271 million-worth of grants, approximately 9% of the value of the total given by the top 300 foundations in the UK as of 2019 (pdf).
DATA RESULTS
How has the audit impacted racial justice funding practices?
“Lloyds Bank Foundation used the Audit tool to categorise our active grants portfolio and to analyse the success rates of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic-led charities applying for funding.
“Alongside our wider commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, the evidence from the audit tool led to changes in our foundation’s grant-making approach, including the introduction of a 25% ringfenced fund in August 2020 for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic-led charities. The findings were also used as a tool to advance organisation-wide conversations and a more targeted approach to work towards becoming an anti-racist funder.”
Next steps to increase funding for racial justice
Since the audit’s conception, it has gained significant attention and uptake from both members and non-members. This page reflects the results of tow cohorts, with data contributed by 20 funders as of November 2021.
Funders were initially hesitant to conduct the audit and share data on their grant-making portfolios, but it is because of their data transparency that funders have succeeded in inspiring their peers to analyse their data and make real change.
We encourage all funders to use the audit as a ‘starting step’ towards having a more focused and specific approach to race equality funding. The audit should be used as a snapshot of funders’ current portfolios, with the aim of repeating the audit annually or bi-annually, depending on capacity, to track progress.
Since these two cohorts we have been able to revise our language and integrate it with 360Giving’s new DEI Data Standard, updating the language and terminology we use to “communities experiencing racial inequity”.
If you’re a funder, and would like to complete the Audit for the next cohort, email us!
Clarifications
No individual funder data is published in the Alliance’s findings.
*We understand and recognise that there can be differing views on terminology and how best to discuss the race equality agenda. “Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic” was the language chosen when the tool was initially developed in 2019 after consulting race equality campaigners and advocates in order to ensure consistency with the sector. However, we are conscious of the evolution of language, identity and limitations of these terms, as well as the sensitivities and complexities involved. Therefore, since this data has been published, the audit tool has been revised, which includes updating the terminology to “communities experiencing racial inequity”. We endeavour to constantly review this language for future work.
*The criteria used to classify a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic sector organisation required that organisations have both a mission and purpose to benefit Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities and the majority of their leadership (at least half of the senior team and the Trustee board) are from the minority community(ies) the organisation serves.