The Clothworkers’ Foundation (Reg Charity no 274100) First Floor, 16 Eastcheap, London EC3M 1BD www.ClothworkersFoundation.org.uk
Find us on LinkedIn and X/Twitter (@ClothworkersFdn)
from our annual Charities Reception, a networking event for our recent grant recipients.
Photo
ABOUT THE FOUNDATION
The Clothworkers’ Foundation was established, and endowed, by The Clothworkers’ Company in 1977. It exists to make grants and investments to charities and social businesses operating across our mission areas, and these are enabled by the management of our assets, and by generous donations from The Clothworkers’ Company.
Since 1977, we have distributed more than £184 million to organisations working for disadvantaged and marginalised communities across the UK.
OUR VISION, MISSION AND VALUES
VISION
An equitable society where all can participate and thrive.
MISSION
We support charities and social businesses that work with marginalised and disadvantaged people and communities, and those working towards a more equitable society.
VALUES
• Equitable – We work to promote equity in our grantmaking and organisation, and to identify and manage bias. We strive to increase participation and representation at all levels of our organisation to advance better decision-making.
• Adaptive – We strive to be responsive to the needs of our grantees and to listen to them as experts. We learn from them, from our peers and from our own experience, to drive improvements in our work. We adapt to external change when necessary.
• Enabling – We strive to provide funding and support that enables our grantees to be more impactful and sustainable, and which minimises burdens on them. We aim to empower our own team through flexible and trust-based ways of working.
• Collaborative – We seek to work with other funders, research organisations, and networks. We do this to serve grantees more effectively, to learn, and to share our learning with others to maximise our joint impact.
DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD
Thanking you for picking up our Annual Review, and letting us share with you some insight into what we achieved in 2024.
This was the second year of implementation under our current five-year strategy (202327). We were delighted to launch our Economic Equity Programme, which builds on the model of our Racial Equity Programme, to address economic insecurity – an issue that cuts across so much of the work we fund.
Our Equity Programmes are allowing us to develop and test relational models of funding, and to prioritise organisations that are ‘led by and for’ the communities they serve. Two years into our strategy, we are
beginning to take learning from this experience, and apply it elsewhere in our activities, and this will be a significant part of our work in 2025.
We, like many funders, experienced high and sustained demand throughout the year for our Open Grants Programme. We believe this reflects reduced funding availability from public and statutory sources, as well as high demand for charities’ services, as the cost of living increases and deepens need.
As a capital funder, we see organisations responding to this demand with ambitious and innovative plans for expansion and improvement in what they do, including new digital
technology, bigger buildings, and better equipment.
We know that behind these projects are small teams battling insecure funding streams while tackling some of the most challenging issues in society. We are privileged to play a part in enabling these organisations, but do not underestimate the difficulty of the work they do and the challenging contexts in which they are doing it. We offer our sincere thanks to all those we supported in 2024.
Jenny North, Foundation Director
Below: Representatives from our Equity Programmes at our annual Charities Reception.
GRANTMAKING: A CLOSER LOOK
OPEN GRANTS PROGRAMME
This is our largest programme, and the only one that is open to applications. It funds the capital needs of charities and social businesses across the UK that are serving disadvantaged and marginalised individuals and communities.
Building projects are the most common projects to receive funding across this programme, but we also support equipment and vehicle purchases, and now the design and development of digital infrastructure. Across all
types, we are looking for projects which will increase or improve delivery, reach, and sustainability for the organisation.
RISING DEMAND
Like many funders, we saw demand increase dramatically during 2024. Application numbers doubled compared to 2022 – we received nearly 1,300 in 2024.
The Trustees agreed to increase the budget for the year, which allowed us to meet more of the demand. In the end, we awarded 467 grants, an increase of 39 per cent from the previous year.
This included 330 Small Grants (up to £15,000) and 137 Large Grants (more than £15,000). By the end of the year, we had committed a total of £8,657,478.
LOOKING AHEAD
But we also had to turn down more grants – our overall success rate for eligible applications fell to 47 per cent for Small and Large Grants. By the end of the year, we had agreed that more strategic changes to our processes and priorities would be needed in 2025 to allow us to flexibly respond to demand over the longer-term.
467 CAPITAL PROJECTS FUNDED IN 2024
This image is from Dallaglio Rugby Works, which received funding under our expanded Open Grants Programme eligibility for digital infrastructure projects.
GRANTMAKING: A CLOSER LOOK (CONTINUED)
PROACTIVE GRANTS
Proactive Grants are developed in line with our strategy and are not open to applications.
EQUITY PROGRAMMES
At the heart of our current strategy are our Equity Programmes. The Racial Equity Programme was launched in 2023, and provides threeyear unrestricted grants to four organisations working to advance equity through a racial justice lens.
Our relational approach to managing these grants was supported by our learning partners Ten Years’ Time and Liberating Knowledge.
In 2024, we launched the Economic Equity Programme with grants to five organisations working to advance economic stability and security for individuals and communities. The total commitment was £1.2 million over three years, with additional funding for Learning Partner support. You can read more about the Economic Equity Programme and our grantholders on page 16.
REGULAR GRANTS
Our Regular Grants Programme provides ‘grants for grants’ to organisations that can make smaller grants to individuals and organisations aligned with our mission, but which we otherwise could not reach.
Our aims for Regular Grants are: To meet the immediate needs of the ultimate beneficiaries. To build the capacity, reach, or impact of the intermediary grantees.
To meet the full cost of the onward grantmaking (‘full cost recovery’). To identify insights into the lived experience of individuals experiencing disadvantage and/or marginalisation.
We aim to always make multiyear commitments under the programme. Current grantees include Buttle UK, Blind Aid, Friends of the Elderly and The Sheriff and Recorders’ Fund.
RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT AND PARTNERSHIP (RDP)
We have limited funding available each year to support organisations or initiatives that fall outside our strategic programmes, but which we believe have the potential to support our mission, or to improve our knowledge and grantmaking. The latter includes the Funders for Race Equality Alliance and the IVAR Open &
RANT DISTRIBUTION
£10.78 MILLION
Trusting Initiative.
In 2024, we were able to use our RDP funding to support work by Unit 38, The Stour Trust, and Back on the Map.
These organisations are engaged in work to support the development and ownership of assets by and for communities. This is something we already fund under our Open Grants and Equity Programmes, and are keen to understand further.
Clothworker Members’ Fund
≈
£0.14m (>1%)
Research, Development & Partnerships
≈
£0.08m (<1%)
Regular Grants
≈
£0.51m (5%)
Proactive Programmes ≈
£1.4m (13%)
Open Grants (Large and Small) ≈ £8.66m (80%)
SUMMARY FINANCIAL REPORT 2024
Donations & Gifts (principally from The Clothworkers’ Company) ≈ £2.64m (20%)
Investments & Rental Income ≈ £10.41m (80%)
£13.05 MILLION
£12.61 MILLION
Grants (excluding recommitted funds)
≈ £10.65m (85%)
Costs of Generating Income ≈ £0.28m (2%)
Charitable Support Costs ≈ £1.68m (13%)
INCOMING RESOURCES
Donations and Gifts
Investment and Rental Income
Total Incoming Resources
RESOURCES EXPENDED
Costs of Generating Income
Charitable Expenditure Grants
Support Costs
Total Resources Expended
Net Incoming/(Outgoing) Resources
Gains on Investment Assets
Net Movement in Funds
Fund Balances Brought Forward at 1 January
FUND BALANCES CARRIED FORWARD AT 31 DECEMBER
FIXED ASSETS
Social Investments at Cost
Investments at Market Value
NET CURRENT ASSETS
Current Assets
Creditors – due within one year Net Current Assets plus Fixed Assets
We expanded our Open Grants Programme eligibility to support digital infrastructure in 2023, and, at the end of 2024, we’ve now completed our first full year of making grants towards digital projects.
We know that websites, information management systems, and even apps are just as important to organisations’
reach, sustainability and impact as ‘bricks and mortar’ facilities, or equipment. And, they are often just as hard to fundraise for.
We have received great interest in this funding, which comes under our Open Grants Programme. In 2024, we received 178 applications and awarded 71 grants – the vast majority as Small Grants (up to £15,000).
Our biggest digital infrastructure grant was £50,000, and our average digital grant was £9,557.
The overwhelming majority of digital infrastructure grants – 90 per cent – went towards websites or information management systems, with a very small number supporting the digitisation of services or the development of new apps.
COMMUNITY SAVERS
Affiliated with Community Led Action and Savings Support (CLASS)
Community Savers are a network of women-led neighbourhood associations taking action on poverty and inequality.
Through local Savings Groups, individuals and families on very low incomes can build financial resilience through saving small amounts every week. These groups are also a space where women can make connections, share problems, and get practical and emotional support. Beyond this, women meeting at groups can identify local opportunities for addressing economic disadvantage and inequity. With support from the central
organisations, they can then take action. In particular, Community Savers is supporting action on more sustainable homes for social rent in Manchester.
In 2024, we provided £13,200 towards a new website for the central organisation. Crucial new features includes a map of local groups, and much more information about how to join, or start a group. The site also lays out the ethos and aims of the organisation – these steps are vital to allow people to find them via search engines, attract new savers, and spark new savings groups.
Right: A participant from the Community Savers ‘Dandelion Savers’ programme, a weekly peer-support group for local residents.
Below: Community Savers’ new website.
OPEN GRANTS SPOTLIGHT (CONTINUED)
DALLAGLIO RUGBY WORKS
Dallaglio Rugby Works (DRW) supports young people aged between 11 and 18 years who are experiencing school exclusion. The charity works in Pupil Referral Units, Secure Centres and Youth Offender Institutes as well as schools across England and Wales.
Using rugby as a tool to build engagement and trust, DRW puts in place a long-term relationship for each young
person with an adult who takes a trauma-informed and antioppressive approach to building a young person’s self-esteem, wellbeing and life skills. Of the 7,000-plus young people DRW has worked with to date, 96 per cent went on to a positive education, employment or training destination post-16.
In 2024, we provided £50,000 towards the development of a significant new digital platform. This had two parts. First, the charity developed
an app that allows young people to track, demonstrate and reflect on their own personal development during their time with DRW, as well as manage their engagement with the programme.
Second, DRW created a database that allows the team to track individuals’ engagement, adjust the support offered, and understand what is and isn’t working for the young people they support.
“ OUR WORK IS NOT A NUMBERS GAME, IT’S ABOUT REAL IMPACT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE THAT NEED IT MOST.
[Dallaglio
Rugby Works]
EMPLOYMENT 4 ALL
Employment 4 All works with young people in Southwark who face additional barriers to employment – including care leavers, refugees, and prison leavers. Employment
4 All provides culturally appropriate support for these young people’s mental health and wellbeing, as well as help to address needs such as insecure housing, exploitation
and domestic violence. When these core needs are met, the young people can engage with soft skills development and job hunting – aided by Employment
4 All’s partnerships with small and large local employers.
In 2024, we provided £11,300 towards a CRM system. This system allows each young person to create and store a CV, qualification records, and other key documents
for employment – essential for young people who may not have their own digital equipment beyond a phone. It also allows Employment
4 All to track individual’s progress towards outcomes and to build a picture of which practices are more or less effective in creating this progress. This data and evidence is critical for the organisation and its strategic plans for growth.
The Dallaglio Rugby Works Player Profiles app.
BUILDINGS, VEHICLES, & MORE
SHANTONA
Shantona Women’s & Family Services has been supporting the community at Harehills (Leeds) for more than 25 years. The organisation is led by and for women, particularly those of Bangladeshi origin, although it serves people from 37 different communities, and reached more than 2,500 people in 2024. Its services have a significant focus on women who have
experienced domestic and sexual violence, as well as more general support for health and wellbeing in the community, and the provision of childcare and youth services.
Shantona has never had a dedicated space for its work before, instead sharing space at various male-led community venues. In 2024, we committed £125,000 towards the purchase and refurbishment of a building.
This will provide the charity with a purpose-built home for its services, and the opportunity to expand the services it is able to deliver, as well as greater financial sustainability through long-term tenants offering complementary services.
To enable this purchase, Shantona has also raised money from the Community Ownership Fund, and taken on blended finance from a social investor.
Facing page: Shantona’s Harehills facility.
CARE’s soon-to-be new home in Grimsby.
JG NEXT GENERATION
JG Next Generation is a small organisation working in the Fens of Cambridgeshire. This often-overlooked area of disadvantage has few opportunities and activities for young people, particularly affordable opportunities.
Set up by a father and son, JG Next Generation provides boxing sessions to young people, aimed at building their self-confidence and focus as well as improving their physical fitness. Like the organisation itself, JG Next Generation’s activities are intergenerational – its sessions also cater for older people, including some with significant health issues.
In 2024, we awarded JG Next Generation £30,000 to purchase a minibus. Fenland villages are not well-connected by public transport, and the minibus allows the organisation to deliver services to young people who could not otherwise access the boxing sessions. This increases the charity’s reach and brings together young people who may only live a few miles apart, but would otherwise be unlikely to meet.
CARE
CARE works in North East Lincolnshire to support people experiencing poverty, homelessness, domestic abuse and other complex issues – as well as the toll that these things take on mental health.
More than 6,000 individuals a year access CARE through its housing programme, food bank service, or simply by walking in to one of the organisation’s access points. They receive holistic and person-centred support, often from staff who have also experienced these issues, helping them reach a place of security and safety, however long it takes.
In 2024, we committed £100,000 towards the refurbishment and regeneration of a former bank in
central Grimsby.
Derelict for some time, the building will be transformed into a space for CARE’s staff and services. CARE’s current building is no longer big enough to support the delivery of the charity’s services, nor does it provide a space fit for the team and community. The new building allows both privacy and sanctuary for people in distress, and community areas for connection – a beautiful, not just functional, space for clients to call home while they need to use it.
CARE will move into the building later this year (2025), before embarking on a second phase to extend the building further, creating more space for themselves, as well as spaces to rent, which will generate income.
Right:
ECONOMIC EQUITY
As part of our current strategy (2023-27), we have increased our commitment to providing strategic multi-year core funding to help organisations implement or adapt their strategies and strengthen their operations. This approach is an essential element of our Equity Programmes. Having launched the Racial Equity Programme in 2023, in 2024 we committed to providing this funding for organisations working towards greater economic stability or security for under-resourced and marginalised individuals and communities.
We developed the Economic Equity portfolio in two phases. We first funded Breaking Barriers, an organisation working to support refugees into meaningful employment, as part of our strategic response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Set Them Up Foundation – which provides financial education for young people through workshops, mentoring and online information – was initially supported through our Research Development and Partnership Programme. Both of these organisations joined the Economic Equity portfolio early in 2024.
We subsequently worked with Renaisi to undertake research into the root causes of economic inequity at individual, community and systemic levels. This helped us to refine the aims and goals of the programme, identify organisations new to us, and to grow the portfolio from two to five organisations. People’s Economy, Repowering London and West Midlands Urban Community Housing joined the portfolio at the end of the year.
Collaborating with these organisations will allow us to support, and learn about, ways to tackle economic inequity that are new to us, including community-led campaigning, community-owned energy and community-led housing.
Facing page: Breaking Barriers language tuition programme.
Right: Proactive Programmes Manager Nelly Koko-Konan. Use the QR code to watch a five-minute interview with Nelly on our collaborative relationship with Breaking Barriers.
PROACTIVE SPOTLIGHT (CONTINUED)
BREAKING BARRIERS
Breaking Barriers work to get refugees into meaningful employment, believing that this is the best route to long-term economic wellbeing for individuals. It does this through a combination of 1:1 support, English lessons, and pathways to employment delivered in partnership with businesses. The charity has grown significantly since it was founded in London in 2015, and in 2024 it has expanded operations to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow.
Most recently, Breaking Barriers announced the transformational integration of RefuAid’s successful language and re-
accreditation programmes into its service offering. This move will support Breaking Barriers’ efforts to meet demand for its support nationally and enhance its offer: alongside its existing core offer of specialist advice and guidance, the organisation will now offer structured language tuition and re-accreditation guidance for refugees across the UK who want to secure meaningful employment.
SET THEM UP FOUNDATION
Set Them Up Foundation (STUF) provides financial education for young people aged 15-19 through workshops, mentoring and online information. It recognises that financial literacy
is still out of reach for millions of young people and is on a mission to help students and young people get a handle on the fundamentals of finance.
STUF was initially funded as a brand new organisation under our Research, Development and Partnership Programme in 2022, and joined our Economic Equity portfolio in 2024.
This allowed us to test and develop a trust-based model of relational funding with an organisation that is now reaching nearly 200 young people a year and has begun an evaluation partnership with the University of West London to test and develop the impact of its workshops.
“ WE WANTED TO FOCUS ON ECONOMIC INSTABILITY AND INSECURITY ... ENGAGING WITH BREAKING BARRIERS WAS A STRONG ENTRY POINT FOR US WHEN IT COMES TO SUPPORTING MEANINGFUL EMPLOYMENT FOR COMMUNITIES WHO HAVE BEEN DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACTED BY A LACK OF OPPORTUNITY IN THE UK.
[Nelly Koko-Konan, Proactive Programmes Manager]
Photo courtesy of the Set Them up Foundation.
Our Economic Equity partner People’s Economy provided the photo on this page and the one on the cover of this publication.
PROACTIVE SPOTLIGHT (CONTINUED)
PEOPLE’S ECONOMY
People’s Economy grew out of the global student movement, Rethinking Economics, which, after 2008, campaigned for reforms in how economics is taught in universities and understood in society. Over time, the organisation shifted its focus and now works directly with communities to identify and advocate for specific economic changes.
Today, People’s Economy collaborates with those ‘at the sharp end’ of the
economy to shape a fairer and more sustainable alternative to current systems. It works with local groups, who may already be addressing the symptoms of insecurity and inequality, to identify where their causes connect with the wider economy, and to co-design skills, strategies and plans to address these causes.
People’s Economy is currently working with communities in North Wales, Birmingham and Hartlepool, as well as nationally with migrant justice and youth organising groups.
“ THE ECONOMY IS THE FOUNDATION OF OUR EXISTENCE, BUT ITS WORKINGS REMAIN A MYSTERY TO MOST OF US. [PEOPLE’S ECONOMY] IS CHANGING ALL THAT BY HELPING ORDINARY CITIZENS UNDERSTAND HOW THE ECONOMY WORKS.
[Dr Ha-Joon Chang, Reader at the University of Cambridge]
PROACTIVE SPOTLIGHT (CONTINUED)
REPOWERING LONDON
Repowering London grew out of a community project in Brixton. A residents’ group formed with support from Lambeth Council and became Brixton Energy – a co-operative that owns three solar projects located on social housing estates. Repowering London was formed in 2013 as result of demand from other community groups that wanted to replicate these projects.
Since then, Repowering London has established community energy co-operatives across London. The group installs solar arrays and also support the retrofitting of residential and community buildings to improve
energy efficiency and reduce energy bills. It also provides education and advice on fuel poverty, and campaigns for an energy system that works for communities as well the climate.
Repowering London addresses economic and climate issues to present a response that is aimed at generating clean energy, increasing community ownership and engagement with the energy system, and tackling individual fuel poverty.
WEST MIDLANDS URBAN COMMUNITY HOMES
West Midlands Urban Community Homes (wMUCH) is a hub for knowledge and
expertise to inspire and support a new wave of community-led housing in the West Midlands.
wMUCH provides advice and support to community groups, established community organisations, housing associations, developers and local authorities who want to create community-owned and affordable homes. It also works collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders to help unlock the land, finance and people needed to enable community-led housing projects.
The end-to-end support the organisation provides includes:
• helping groups form, creating business and impact plans, looking for suitable sites, and identifying predevelopment funding;
• negotiating with landowners and local authorities;
• supporting planning permission processes and securing capital funding;
• supporting groups during the build phase and creation of long-term management partnerships.
wMUCH is currently supporting a pipeline of more than 200 community-owned homes.
This page: A team from Repowering London poses on top of a rooftop where they’ve installed solar panels.
Facing page: Repowering London community education workshop.
SOCIAL INVESTMENT SPOTLIGHT:
TELLMI
The Clothworkers’ Foundation is an impact-first social investor, looking to make investments in funds and organisations aligned with our mission areas, and where for-return funding can make a difference to either the sustainability or impact of ventures.
Since 2017, we have made commitments totalling £2.75 million. We have limited capacity to devote to identifying and progressing social investment opportunities, but we are committed to progressing our participation in social investments and learning more about the role investments can play within our mission and strategy.
In 2024, we invested £100,000 in Tellmi, a start-up social
enterprise that provides an online mental health service for children and young people aged 11-25. Users receive anonymous, pre-moderated support from peers in their age group –this almost immediate help prevents escalation of mental health problems, supports the development of healthy helpseeking behaviours for life, and helps young people identify their own solutions with the support of peers, overseen by adult moderators.
Tellmi has already supported more than 95,000 young people since its launch, and is set to grow through contracting with health authorities and other organisations. As well as outcomes for young people, Tellmi can play a part in reducing pressure on health services and schools.
“ IT’S JUST EASIER TO TALK, BECAUSE YOU’RE ANONYMOUS. YOU CAN BE YOURSELF. [SNOWYLOUDLAMA, Tellmi user, aged 13]
