Hannah Lison, head of grants and partnerships at Independent Age talks about the great potential of grant-making and the importance of being an understanding and collaborative funder.
_________________________________________________________________

For national charities, reaching people in local communities can feel like an ongoing challenge. At Independent Age, we support thousands of older people in financial hardship every year through our existing helpline and national services. With our bold new ambition to improve the lives of 1 million older people by 2027, grant-making has become a central pillar of our work.

Strategic grant-making can be a great way to achieve specific goals. By funding organisations already embedded in local communities, larger organisations can reach people who otherwise might have missed out on support. For Independent Age, it means we can gather evidence on how to tackle the causes and effects of financial hardship in older age on a national scale, and work with local organisations to help address local challenges and needs. We’re able to fund both existing and new work, and learn from brilliant organisations who have crucial insights and experience to share.

Independent Age launched its first grants fund in May 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 Emergency Grants programme awarded £3.3 million to 258 organisations across the UK to help their work with older people during the pandemic. Subsequent grants were focussed on supporting organisations to re-open their face-to-face services.

In 2022, we launched the £2 million Cost of Living Grants Fund as a rapid response to a crisis that we knew was pushing older people in financial hardship to breaking point. An initial £1 million from our charity was match funded by a donation from the Pension Insurance Corporation (‘PIC’). This allowed us to provide 50 organisations with £40,000 each over a year-long period. Helping them increase their resource to help older people struggling with the immediate cost of living crisis, and ensure older residents were not forced to choose between heating their home or eating a meal.

Round one of the Cost of Living Grants Fund finished late last year, and results have exceeded all expectations. An incredible 35,635 older people have received support and at least £13 million in previously unclaimed benefits have been secured. The increased access to benefits alone represents a return on investment of over 550% on the £2 million we awarded.

However, behind these numbers is a human story for everyone supported. Those in later life are at disproportionate risk of isolation and digital exclusion and therefore benefit hugely from in-person support. Age Connects Cardiff and the Vale, one of our six grants fund partners based in Wales, explained the importance of home visits:

“Due to the significant number of individuals with complex needs in our area, visiting a hub was not an option for everyone. This funding provided the ability for our new Adviser to offer home visits. Clients welcomed this support as it has reduced barriers for citizens living in the locality to access support to claim benefits, maximising their income and improving their quality of life.”

This is a story that repeated itself across the board. Funding allowed the recruitment of 31 new members of staff and 278 volunteers. As a result, many organisations increased their capacity to spend face-to-face time with older service users, get to know them and build trust. Several were able to conduct more home visits, which is highly effective in delivering advice for the most vulnerable of older people.

The success of the Cost of Living Grants Fund is bittersweet. It demonstrates the huge impact that local charities and community projects have, but also the huge demand for funding created by the continuing cost of living crisis. Which is why we recently awarded a further £1 million in a second round of funding to 27 more organisations that help older people facing financial hardship.

So, what does best practise look like for us when it comes to grant-making?

For us, it is important that grant-making is based on high-quality relationships. We see the organisations we fund as partners and work collaboratively with them to achieve common aims in tackling financial hardship in later life. This also means we foster supportive and trust-based relationships to help support any challenges or surprises partners may experience. Local organisations do incredible work, often tackling very complex issues all with the constant challenge of fundraising enough to keep their services running. So, it’s important to really listen as a funder.

It is vital to continually look for opportunities to learn from grant-giving. The insights gained from the data we get back from funded organisations are invaluable. They help us understand current demand in the sector, identify the areas where our funding could best be deployed, and helps to evidence impact.

The Cost of Living Fund has shown that quality advice provision, particularly face to face support, is a hugely effective way to help older people unlock unclaimed benefits, and that this type of provision is hugely under resourced. Over 70% of funded organisations primarily provided advice work or found advice to be a great solution to improving income and reducing costs.

The Cost of Living Fund was a fast response to help those most devastated by spiralling costs. But we know that to sustain long term support for those most in need, we must provide stability through long term funding. Which is why we have launched the £2.8 million ‘Boosting Advice’ fund which will provide at least three years of funding to advice charities helping older people in financial hardship in a number of targeted areas in the UK.

As part of Independent Age’s commitment to a collaborative grant-making approach, we strive to offer our grant partners additional support that really adds value to our funding. Organisations we work with through our Boosting Advice fund will have access to resources and support from our services team, including specialist training on older people’s benefits and welfare advice.

Going forward, Independent Age will continue to grow and develop its grant-making activities, to achieve our aim of improving the lives of one million older people facing financial hardship by 2027. Ensuring all the time that we are addressing the needs of older people and listening carefully to our partners, recognising their expertise and experience.

5 top tips for organisations thinking about grant-making.
1. Be clear - spend time thinking through what are you trying to achieve with funding- have clear outcomes so you can work with organisations meaningfully.
2. Be collaborative - there is a power imbalance in grant funding that is very important to recognise and address. Creating a supportive two-way relationship is a good initial step and setting shared goals.
3. Be flexible – organisations are often providing complex work in a challenging landscape, all with usually limited funds and spinning multiple plates. Things change and it’s important to listen and adapt as a grant funder to offer the best support.
4. Be proportionate – organisations have tens (sometimes hundreds) of different funders, who usually all have their own requirements. There’s lots of shifting priorities so it’s important to be realistic about what organisations will be able to do with you.
5. Be bold – funding different ideas and organisations can bring some risks but brilliant opportunities. Not everything may happen exactly as planned, but often that’s where the most insights and learning come from.

---