This fund comes from income generated by properties in the borough. Its purpose is to invest in ideas, and the people who generate them, in our community.
Before the pandemic, we were using this fund to test a relational model of funding. Applicants would bring us ideas they wanted to try out and we looked at how we could support them in bringing that vision to life. This involved solving problems together rather than insisting that an idea was fully formed and planned out before giving out funding.
Decision-making power still lay with the trustees but we were testing if we could slowly build a community of funding recipients who could then become part of the decision-making process.
In the wake of the pandemic, we continued to offer this support to ideas that were about tackling community needs caused by the lockdown.