Yesterday marked the opening of BLMUK’s second funding round, which closes on 11:59pm on the 23rd October. This process that will see £350,000 released to grassroots organisations working towards Black liberation. We are incredibly excited to be calling out to groups that align with any element of BLMUK’s platform: to fund Black futures, transform education, support the thriving of Black arts and culture, end the hostile environment and border controls, defund the police in favour of investing in communities, and foster international solidarity.
We have two separate funds available: the Development Fund and the Impact Fund. The Development Fund will provide grants of up to £10,000, paid over one or two years, to organisations that have been operating for fewer than five years, and have an annual income of less than £50,000. We know how difficult it is to get established as a fledgling organisation, and so we want this fund to go to groups that are just starting out, are small, or have struggled to access funding to get started and/or develop their work.
The Impact Fund will provide grants of up to £50,000, paid over one or two years, to organisations that have been operating for five years or more, and which have an annual income of less than £200,000.
We would not be able to distribute these funds without our supporters from across the UK and beyond. In the summer of 2020, BLMUK started a GoFundMe to support our work in grassroots Black education, abolitionist campaigning, and challenging racist police violence. We were overwhelmed to see the financial support we received, which totalled at just over £1.2 million in donations from over 36,300 people.
Following this, we pledged to distribute £570,000 of this to smaller organisations across the community, who stand shoulder to shoulder with BLMUK in our aims. In 2021, we distributed £170,000 to Black or multi-ethnic-led grassroots groups, including African Rainbow Family, the Northern Police Monitoring Project, A Tribe Named Athari, Justice For Black Lives, Sistah Space, Acts of Love, AZ Magazine, Abahlali, Sindicato de Manteros de Madrid, United Friends and Families Campaign and B’ME Cancer Communities. These groups were all working in areas that reflected BLMUK’s platform. Half of the groups we funded were based outside of London, and all were united in their work to improve Black people’s lives in a racist society.
This funding round, we hope that we will attract applications from a similarly wide range of groups who share our vision, and are in need of better resourcing to realise their aims. Organisations’ work must be related to one of BLMUK’s priority themes – and we have produced guidance for anyone wanting to apply to the Development Fund or the Impact Fund.
Once you have read the guidance, we welcome you to apply for Development Fund or the Impact Fund. We are excited to read your applications, and hope that we can work towards the project of Black liberation together.
If you have any questions, please check out our fund FAQs. If you don’t find the answer you need, reach out by email at grants@ukblm.org.