At the Steve Morgan Foundation, we believe in ‘giving money away well’ by building partnerships and supporting charities doing excellent work. We also believe in openness and honesty about the grants that we award and improving grant making across the UK. This is why we publish open grants data through 360Giving and have become an IVAR Flexible Funder.
360Giving
The aim of 360Giving is for more money to go to where it is needed most to support communities and good causes through a more informed understanding of the grant making picture. The Steve Morgan Foundation shares this view and so we have joined the UK’s leading funders in making our grants data open through the 360Giving Data Standard, helping to map and improve grant making across the UK.
The 360Giving Data Standard helps UK funders to publish their grants data in an open, standardised way so that people can better understand and use the data to improve charitable giving. Through 360Giving, we are able to share information on who, where and what we fund in a way that others can access for free. You can view all of our awarded grants since April 2020 here.
Since it was founded in 2015, more than 250 funders have published over 850,000 grants and more than 40,000 people a year access and use the data.
IVAR Flexible Funder
The Steve Morgan Foundation works hard to adopt the principles of open and trusting grant making, as set out by IVAR and London Funders. They are calling on funders to adopt simpler, more flexible practices that make life easier for those they fund.
We are one of over 100 funders who have signed up to the eight commitments and joined a community with other funders and charities to improve practice together. The eight commitments are:
- Don’t waste time – funders will be open, transparent and clear about all of their priorities, requirements and exclusions.
- Ask relevant questions – funders will test their application forms to ensure clarity, relevance and avoid repetition, only collecting information that genuinely informs a funding decision.
- Accept risk – funders will clearly explain how risk is assessed and be realistic about how much assurance applicants can provide.
- Act with urgency – funders will aim to make decisions as quickly as possible by publishing and sticking to timeframes to ensure they work at a pace that meets the needs of applicants.
- Be open – funders will provide feedback, including reasons for rejections. They will analyse and share relevant data, including publishing success rates.
- Enable flexibility – funders will aim to give unrestricted funding; where they can’t (or are a specialist funder), they will ensure their funding is as flexible as possible.
- Communicate with purpose – a funders contact is positive and purposeful. They will be realistic about their time commitments.
- Be proportionate – funders will ensure that their formal reporting requirements are well understood, proportionate and meaningful.
You can see who else has signed up and read more about these eight commitments on IVAR’s website: www.ivar.org.uk/flexible-funders.
We hope that our commitment to transparent giving will encourage more grant makers to adopt these standards and practices to improve the overall practice of grant-making across the UK.
Please click here for more information about our grants and types of funding.