Less than 6 per cent of UK foundation giving between 2021 and 2022 went towards work to tackle injustice, a report published today has revealed.
The research from the grant-maker the Civic Power Fund analysed more than £950m-worth of grants made between 2021 and 2022 by 60 different funders that are active in social justice philanthropy networks.
It found that 27 per cent of grants from known social justice funders went towards work addressing injustice, which the research says equates to 5.7 per cent of UK foundation giving.
And just 0.3 per cent of grants went towards “building people power through organising”, which the Civic Power Fund defines as bringing people who share a problem together to win the change that matters to them.
The majority of social justice funding went towards “supporting organising work focused on a specific social issue, rather than shifting power to a specific community”, according to the report.
It found that of £250m-worth of social justice grants distributed, 63.4 per cent focused on work carried out at a national level, which the grant-maker said represented a failure to “shift power and resources to communities”.
And more than one-third (37 per cent) of social justice grants went to “inside game” work in elite settings, which the report defines as “work aimed at decision-makers” that “often excludes the very communities both facing injustice and fighting to end it”.
“By contrast, less than 10 per cent of social justice funding is going towards ‘outside game’ activities that excluded communities rely on to be heard,” the report said.
It also highlights that the dominant share of social justice funding in 2021/22 was focused on “the final stages of social transformation rather than the movements that make these changes possible to begin with”.
Eliza Baring, project support officer at the Civic Power Fund and co-author of the report, told Third Sector that funders must go further in building the power of communities fighting for social justice.
She said: “At this time of economic, environmental, political and social crisis – with increasing rates of destitution and deprivation, greater inequality, democratic decline and the increasing failure of public services – it is marginalised and minoritised communities who are being hit the hardest.
“In tackling these crises, fighting injustice is more urgent than ever. Funders have a crucial role to play here, and must go much further in distributing more and better money to build the power of oppressed communities on the frontlines of the fight for social justice.”