Our nine year strategy 2026 - 2035

With our last strategy coming to an end, we’ve been listening to how we can do more to open doors for communities over the next decade, so they have the resources they need to speed up and spark change. 

Our new strategy will be about building on what we’ve heard are our strengths: understanding what communities need, bringing people together, and helping community-led organisations grow their impact. For many of the partners we’ve invested in over the years, that’s shown up as flexible funding, relational support, long-term commitment, and our unique relationship with Lloyds Banking Group that helps unlock more money, time, tools and connections for communities. 

But it’s also a moment for real ambition. After 40 years, we’re now ready to scale what we do best, and we look forward to working with partners old and new along the way to have an even greater impact together.

Key things we've heard

Everyone in England and Wales should be in a good place. In a good place personally. In a home that’s a good place to live. And in a community that’s a good place to belong to. 

Too many people are not in a good place.

• Poverty is deepening.
• Homelessness is rising.
• Communities are divided.

Change is urgently needed. The moment we’re in demands bold action from all corners of society – including from us.

We’ve been listening to how we can do more to open doors for communities over the next decade, so they have the resources they need to speed up and spark change. Here’s what we’ve heard:

1. There's not enough money or volunteers to fuel the change we need.
2. The capacity building we offer helps change the game for many organisations.
3. It’s important we walk alongside communities for the long-term.
4. We need to tailor our approach to deliver more in Wales.
5. We have a role to play - but we can’t do it alone.

There's not enough money or volunteers to fuel the change we need.

“Our biggest challenge is sourcing funding to ensure sustainability.”

Our communities are full of ambitious, energetic and determined people stepping up to make their neighbours’ lives better and their communities grow stronger. We see endless examples of this: people taking change into their own hands. And we have a job to do to put more money, time, tools and connections in their hands.

We’ve heard how the smaller community organisations we invest in have had a particularly tough financial time. The latest year we have data for showed a fall in spending from £2.8bn to £2.1bn for charities under £100,000 in income, and no growth for charities with incomes of less than £1 million – even though more people turned to them.

“Volunteers are the backbone of our charity, yet harder to recruit and retain”

And it’s not just money there’s not enough of. Many of the smaller organisations we support were started by volunteers - the people who care deeply about the state of their communities and get busy changing it.

• 98% of small community organisations that take part in the VCSE Sector Barometer have volunteers, while only 33% have paid staff.
• 67% are having difficulties recruiting volunteers.
• 1 in 3 are finding it hard to keep them.

Yet we know that people want to help.

We’re exploring how we can better use our unique relationship with Lloyds Banking Group to increase the giving of time and money across England and Wales. We’ve already begun – working with the Group’s clients to get more money to communities through a Philanthropy Pilot. And in 2025, we grew our Skills Based Volunteering programme by 40% so more leaders in communities and leaders in the Group could test ideas, solve problems, and improve lives together than ever before.

The capacity building we offer helps change the game for many organisations.

“The money is great, but for me, the value is definitely in the additional support - and the fact that they’re with us on that journey, and can see the potential of where we want to be.”

For over 10 years, we’ve done more than give money. We’ve put tools and resources in the hands of people and organisations through capacity building and organisational development support.

We know that this investment in capability, combined with our flexible funding, can change the game for organisations in communities. It helps organisations most effectively deliver for the communities they serve, strengthening their resilience for the long term. An independent study of our investment in 1,800 charities over ten years showed that charities that took up our organisational development and capacity building support:

• Grew at more than double the rate of those which didn’t– 8.6% annually on average.
• Were less likely to close.
• Particularly benefited from our Skills Based Volunteering partnership with Lloyds Banking Group, with charities accessing this service growing by 10.6% annually.

We’re exploring how more organisations and places can access this. We’ve already begun - through our partnership with eight expert organisations and the National Lottery Community Fund, which will extend the right help at the right time to up to 640 organisations this year. Doubling the number of organisations we're able to reach on our own.

It’s important we walk alongside communities for the long-term.

“The relationship with Lloyds has been brilliant. Our Regional Manager has been really understanding and supportive, and she still sends me information about training and things that are going on, even though our funding finished.”

How we make our investments matter. We hear that, we see it, and research has shown it time and again.

• 92% of charities surveyed by IVAR put multi-year funding high on their priorities for funders, but only 11% of third sector organisations completing the Third Sector Trends Survey in 2025 strongly agreed their funders made long-term investments in their work.
• When charities are asked what makes a grantmaker stand out as a role model, 6 out of 10 of the most commonly mentioned themes are about relationships, but only 11% of third sector organisations strongly agree that their funders take the time to get to know them.
• Unrestricted funding is of such high value for small community organisations, that some would swap a larger restricted grant for a smaller unrestricted one.

We will set out a nine year vision in our new strategy which we’re launching on 27 May. This allows us to make long-term commitments that can really move the dial. But the world won’t stand still during that time. So every three years, we’ll review where we are on our journey, and what needs to change.

In our new strategy, we will make four promises to the partners we invest in:

1. We will stay flexible, but never vague. Every programme will come with clear focus, eligibility, and criteria.
2. We will hold on to what partners value most: relational support, long-term commitment, and a human approach – even as we embrace technology’s potential.
3. We will work with others to develop our approach to community-led change. This means actively inviting a wide range of perspectives into our thinking and our way of working.
4. We will use the insight shared with us by partners to help influence change locally and nationally.

We need to tailor our approach to deliver more in Wales.

84% of charities in Wales have an income of less than £100,000

Wales is special - with its own political system, culture and language. We want everyone in Wales to be in a good place, so our strategy must work for Wales.

With our local team in Wales, we listened deeply to the views of our partners across the nation, and heard:

• One size doesn’t fit all - especially for Welsh speakers.
• The organisations leading the way in Wales work differently to England’s.
• The data needed to make good investment decisions isn’t good enough, particularly in rural and Welsh-speaking areas.

We’re exploring how we can make our investments work for the very small organisations that are more common in Wales – while continuing to support the more medium-sized ones we already do. We’re also exploring how to include Welsh-speaking communities from the beginning of what we do.

We have a role to play - but we can’t do it alone.

We know we can’t achieve our strategy alone. We have a long history of working with others. But to ensure everyone in England and Wales is in a good place, we must build strong relationships and work in the right way, at the right time. Our approach is driven by impact, not by rigid definitions.

We’re exploring how, through our new strategy, we can be the best possible partner to communities and to the organisations that support them. That means starting with relationships and shared outcomes, then bringing the right mix of partners together – including community-led organisations, social enterprises and infrastructure bodies – and making the most of our relationship with Lloyds Banking Group.

Funding is one of our primary tools, but it is not the only way we work. Shifting the systems that affect people’s lives requires us to bring the right people together. We collaborate with government, the public sector, and strategic partners to bridge the gap between community experience and systemic change.

Want to stay close to the work? We’ll share updates as we build towards 27 May – including what’s staying the same and what’s new.