This Note explores and explains the changing face of the GROW Funding. Cameron Holleran and Jack Webb weave data and experience to unpack the shifts in who we fund and how our support is evolving.
When we first ran the GROW Fund in 2023, our reach was much smaller. Our grantmaking meant that the majority of organisations and groups in our network were charities, with a good chunk of CICs and some private businesses and sole traders. The decision-makers and co-designers of the Fund were our Community Steering Group (CSG), comprising 12 local women who all happened to have attended university.
Given the nature of participatory grantmaking, where decisions are made by the people who would be impacted by the decision, it is therefore not particularly surprising that the first GROW cohort was a balance of charities and CICs, mostly run by women. Within the cohort of 10 organisations, all but one grantee had been to university.
What we learned from that first year was that there was a great deal of appetite for a different approach to funding, but that we needed to do a lot of work to demystify the world of social investment.
Thanks to GROW, 30 entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups in an underfunded borough have got funding, developed their businesses and formed connections that will last well beyond the life of the programme.
What have we seen change?
Organisational structure
In 2026, for the first time, men make up the majority of successful applicants – a first not only for GROW, but any BD Giving fund that has ever been distributed.
We think that this change is closely tied to the fact that half of this cohort are private businesses, as there is data to suggest that men are less likely to run charities or CICs than they are to lead for-profit ventures. Data from the UK Government in 2024 shows that only 14% of SMEs with employees were led by women. By contrast, charities have only been funded in the first GROW cohort.
This is likely due to a shift in how we’ve framed GROW, as well as the fact that charities are generally less likely to seek investment compared to private businesses. The change in our communications may have unintentionally steered the applicant pool away from the third sector, however this could also just be a reflection of our widening network. Previously we could only reach an audience through our reputation as a charitable funder. By 2025, we’ve learned to target people who identified as entrepreneurs (specifically purpose led or wanting to make an impact in the borough). This shift may also be linked to the cohort’s structure and composition since the borough sets up far more new businesses than charities in any given year.
Ethnicity
While Black people have been the most represented ethnicity in each cohort of the GROW Fund, their representation has dipped slightly. Informal conversations that we have had in our community suggest that cultural attitudes towards entrepreneurship and investment are shaping who applies to receive support and make decisions. These cultural forces exist outside BD Giving yet greatly influence the diversity of our applicant pool and the decisions that are made, and our participatory approach gives us the tools to better understand this.
We know, for example, that our current approach to investment is less appealing to Muslim people since we do not currently offer investment that would be Sharia compliant. While we have now supported two Muslim female entrepreneurs, about 1 in 4 B&D residents are Muslim. This means there is a significant proportion of the borough that we are missing out on supporting, underlining the need for more inclusive investment and financial products that reach a wider audience.
Age
Another standout change is the average age of the cohort. This has dropped by about a decade since the first round, from a median of 41.5 down to 33, bringing it much closer to the borough median of 27. This aligns with our deliberate push to engage younger entrepreneurs, particularly those aged 18-25, through targeted outreach in this year’s application process. It’s also interesting to note this substantial drop when the average age of a first-time founder has held steady at 43 for 25 years.
Education
Educational attainment in the cohort has become slightly more diverse, but grantees remain, on average, better educated than the borough’s general population. This could be influenced by a number of factors: education is now mandatory until 18, university attendance is more common, and there may be a correlation between those who pursue higher education and those who start their own ventures.
Previously funded by BD Giving
Perhaps most encouraging is that the vast majority of this cohort’s grantees are new to BD Giving, almost reversing the 2023 figures. While this is a positive sign of our expanding ability to reach new audiences, it also highlights that GROW is not currently acting as a pipeline from our other programmes, as we had once anticipated. This is worth noting, as it challenges an earlier narrative we had adopted, and we may need to shift our priorities or messaging moving forward.
GROW has become so successful in its own right that most of its audience are hearing about BD Giving via GROW marketing rather than the other way around.
What does this mean for GROW 2027?
As we reflect on these insights, we recognise both the progress and the ongoing challenges. Thanks to GROW, 30 entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups in an underfunded borough have got funding, developed their businesses and formed connections that will last well beyond the life of the programme.
While we celebrate the increased diversity in age and the influx of new entrepreneurs, we also see opportunities to ensure our funding remains accessible and equitable. Moving forward, we’ll consider how to encourage more charity-led applications, further diversify educational backgrounds, explore a wider array of investment offers, and – if it remains a priority – revisit GROW’s role in the ecosystem of our other funds.
As always, we welcome feedback and ideas from our community on how we can continue to improve and there will be opportunities throughout the next year to shape the future of GROW.
