Paul Carter

Are more charities closing? At Esmée Fairbairn Foundation we continue to see a big rise in closures amongst the organisations we fund - mostly medium sized charities and social enterprises with a turnover of £100k - £5m. Closures increased in the past two years to *12 organisations per year* announcing closure, compared to *13 organisations in total in the five years prior to 2023*. This trend has continued into 2025 with six organisations announcing closure in six months. Organisations funded by Esmee have long-term, core funding, but are still opting to close for a variety of reasons. We have referred lots of them to The Decelerator, which is taking a short break right now, but has tons of resources on their site if you are thinking about, or worried about closure. https://lnkd.in/gFxhhF9J EDIT 14 August - thank you for sharing and commenting. I did not anticipate this would reach such a large audience! This is a small and specific dataset of organisations Esmee has funded, and I can't share details of why organisations closed without breaking confidences, but I can say that 1 in 10 are social enterprises, and that all closed for more reasons than "just" money troubles. This echoes learning from the Decelerator, but as a funder we're really conscious that "funding anxiety" is also driving instability and conflict - see their latest blog for more on this https://lnkd.in/egft6PtE

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Comic Relief Community Fund for England Opens for Applications Groundwork are administering the grants programme on behalf of Comic Relief Grants of up to £5,000 are available for grassroots, community-led organisations in England with an income of less than £250,000. To be eligible to apply, your organisation must be working in a local area to tackle the immediate impacts of poverty or build resilience to poverty and hardship. The Fund will support: Organisations that are tackling the immediate and urgent impacts of being in poverty, including providing essential resources like food, shelter, advice and healthcare. For example, foodbanks, community kitchens, homeless shelters, welfare advice agencies and health outreach projects. Organisations working to empower communities to take positive steps to lift themselves out of poverty in the longer term. For example, projects that build skills, increase access to employment, strengthen financial resilience or develop community-led solutions. The deadline for applications is 6th October 2025 (12 noon). More information here - https://lnkd.in/eJX8xpmi 'We expect this programme to be significantly oversubscribed. Our 2024/25 programme received more than three times as many applications than the number of grants available'

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A new £9.5 million round of UK Government funding has been made available to support local authorities and charities in efforts to deal with #digital #inequality - the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology says the Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund will be delivered in partnership with the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and is intended to provide a boost for grassroots efforts to help the 1.6 million people in the UK who cannot access online services. https://lnkd.in/erdgmjqR

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