Foundation Scotland

Day

Wednesday 15 June

Time slot

09:30-10:30

This event took place almost 2 years ago

Room

Dochart suite
Wheelchair accessible

Contact

Camille Craig
0131 524 0300

Topics

Economy Funding & fundraising Policy & influencing Wellbeing

Who was the event aimed at?

Managers

Who spoke at this event?

Jimmy Paul, Director WEAll Scotland
Giles Ruck, Chief Executive of Foundation Scotland
Rachel Searle, Head of Communities & Impact at Foundation Scotland

Event summary and materials

What was covered in your sessions?

Foundation Scotland has been collaborating with the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (Scotland) since Autumn 2021, exploring how funders can accelerate Scotland's journey to a wellbeing economy. Many funding programmes currently gravitate toward meeting immediate needs, responding to issues facing communities right now. But how can funders help to address the root causes of need? How can we, and the projects we fund look more ‘upstream’ to explore ways to prevent harm from happening? Do we need to fund differently? 

Was there any useful feedback or reflection from the participants?

Participants raised questions regarding the types of funding available. Making a long-term impact requires a different kind of investment in small charitable organisations. Grant sizes are often small, time-limited and for one year. Could more multi-year programmes become available? Could funders offer more unrestricted funding? Could funders help build capacity and knowledge in grassroots organisations to enable a more ‘upstream’ approach to their work? Can the Government be more supportive of wellbeing initiatives? The importance of engaging with donors on this journey was also raised.

How people can find out more or get involved in your work?

Foundation Scotland will be producing a Learning Report and Funders Toolkit after the summer. Subscribe to receive news from Foundation Scotland to access a copy in the autumn newsletter: https://bit.ly/NewsFromFS. In the meantime, here are the main contacts for the project: 

• Foundation Scotland: Rachel Searle, Head of Communities & Impact and WEAll Project Lead at the Foundation rachel@foundationscotland.org.uk 
• WEAll Scotland: Contact hello@scotland.weall.org