Can “Our Place to Give” Unlock More Equality Impact Philanthropy?
By Ceri Goddard, EIIP Co Director
The government’s new Our Place to Give strategy arrives at an important moment for philanthropy. Across the UK there is growing recognition that philanthropic and impact capital have a greater role to play in tackling deep-rooted inequalities. The question is not simply how to grow giving, but how to ensure it reaches communities and organisations best placed to drive lasting change.
The strategy’s focus on strengthening local giving infrastructure, encouraging collaboration and mobilising new resources has significant potential. Yet its greatest opportunity may be its ability to advance what the Equality Impact Investing Project calls “equality impact philanthropy” - giving that intentionally seeks to reduce inequality and advance social justice through its means and its ends.
First, local philanthropy infrastructure can become a platform for organising around equality impact goals, ensuring that giving is shaped by an understanding of who is most disadvantaged within a place, not simply where resources are geographically located.
Second, the strategy creates opportunities to embed a mobilisation approach that uses public, philanthropic and private resources together. Equality considerations and goals should be built into these partnerships from the outset, informed by, and helping to direct capital towards, communities and organisations experiencing the greatest barriers and exclusions.
Third, efforts to grow giving and participation should recognise changing patterns of wealth and the growing demand among many donors for investments and philanthropy that deliver measurable equality impact and social justice outcomes. Creating more equality-focused vehicles and funds at a local level could help meet this demand.
Place-based philanthropy can be a powerful force for change. But real progress will depend on whether funders, investors, policymakers and communities are willing to put equality at the heart of how resources are mobilised and decisions are made.
As Our Place to Give moves from strategy to implementation, there is an opportunity to build a new generation of place-based funding and investment models that actively reduce inequality. Through the Equality Impact Investing Project, we are working with partners across philanthropy, investment and civil society to make this vision a reality. Join us in shaping the next chapter of equality impact philanthropy.
