What is Islington Giving and why is it different?

The unique aspects of Islington Givings place-based philanthropy:

Features of model

Long standing grant giving philanthropy

National or sub regional across local authority or neighbourhood boundaries.

Islington Giving

Place:

Geographic focus

Focus on a locality that people and partners know and regard as their community.

Collaboration:

Levels of collaboration

Minimal collaboration between grant giver and wider organisations and stakeholders.

Multiple funders and high levels of collaboration and involvement of stakeholder through governance structures. Broad cross-cutting issues, such as poverty and isolation which are specific to the local area. Close involvement of funders in co-creating the vision, strategy and delivery. Direct involvement of funders in building networks and sustaining relationships throughout the delivery of projects.

Local knowledge:

Evidence-based funding remit

Single issue, such as reducing re-offending or improving support to older people.

Partnerships:

Relationship between funder and funded

Relationship is separated and distant, and managed through delivery of agreed outputs and outcomes. Relationship largely managed through contracts between giver and recipient.

Helping you to improve social outcomes

Improved quality of life of Islingtons poorest residents:

Intended impact
Invest in young people

Extent of achievements
Islington Giving grant-funded projects are meeting the needs of these different target groups by: Offering services that fill existing gaps in provision (e.g. at a time and place that suits the target group). Offering a range of services that will tackle the root causes of issues. Improving services for their existing target groups. Network across projects to link up with other local organisations and streamline services. Benefiting through association with Islington Giving, by increasing their local profile, networks and reach.

Tackling poverty

Working to reduce isolation

Local residents give money and time:

Intended impact
Donations

Extent of achievements
The evaluation revealed a range of ways local people and businesses have been compelled to support the campaign: Current supporters tend to hear about Islington Giving via word of mouth. Local people are motivated by the localness of Islington Giving and the transparent approach of the campaign. Stories and insights into the conditions facing Islingtons poorest residents compel engagement. A large scale employee volunteering scheme is underway. Supporters like the flexibility to donate, volunteer or support the campaign depending on what suits their needs and capacity. There are limits to the widespread awareness of the Islington Giving campaign.

Volunteering

Other ways of giving money and time

Helping you to improve social outcomes

Create a new model of 21st century philanthropy:

Intended impact
A new model of 21st century philanthropy

Extent of achievements
Board members and interviewees that have engaged with Islington Giving describe the process of working with the campaign and how this links with a place-based approach to philanthropy describes the achievements as follows: The local focus on Islington is helping to focus and maximise attention on broad cross cutting themes, and motivates people to take part. Partners are working collaboratively which means that individual partners learn from each other whilst the campaign benefits from the breadth of knowledge and experience held by these organisations. The pooling of resources means that effort is not duplicated and has a magnified impact by focussing on specific areas to focus on. Delivery organisations benefit beyond the financial sum of the funding through their access to networks, knowledge and non-financial resources. Local organisations approach Islington Giving as a one stop shop, to pick up information, advice or new contacts.

Helping you to improve social outcomes