Funding in a hostile context

Charities working in human rights and prison reform are under huge pressure right now.

Demand is rising, the political climate feels increasingly uncertain, and funding is becoming more competitive at exactly the moment many organisations are already stretched thin. In this context, the choices funders make, including how they fund, what they prioritise, and how they work with grantees, really matter.

Earlier this year, as a check-in following the introduction of a new strategy in 2024, NPC worked with The Bromley Trust to hear directly from its current and recent grantees. We wanted to understand how charities are experiencing the current landscape, what they most need from funders, and how the Trust’s approach is supporting their work.

What we heard was both sobering and hopeful. While charities painted a stark picture of the challenges they face, they also shared clear, practical insights into what better funding looks like.

A challenging and uncertain environment

Across both sectors, charities described operating in an increasingly complex environment, although the pressures differ.

For human rights organisations, the wider political context looms large. Many pointed to regressive legislation, more hostile public discourse, and the growing influence of far-right activity. These are not abstract concerns. They shape day-to-day work, from rising demand to staff safety and the experiences of the people charities support.

Prison reform organisations highlighted a different set of challenges, often rooted in structural pressures within the criminal justice system: overcrowding, workforce shortages, and blockages that make change difficult even when good practice exists.

Across both groups, here are some shared themes that stand out clearly:

• Fragile and highly competitive funding environment, especially for smaller organisations
• Rising demand and increasingly complex needs
• Growing costs alongside shrinking statutory provision
• Workforce strain, including burnout and retention challenges

At the same time, charities also pointed to areas of opportunity. These include growing recognition of lived experience leadership, stronger collaboration, and increased public mobilisation around human rights issues.

What we’re learning from Bromley Trust grantees

A central finding from this work is that many of the practices charities value most are already central to The Bromley Trust’s approach, particularly its focus on long-term relationships and multi-year unrestricted funding.

Grantees consistently described the Trust as relational, engaged and human:

We particularly value the very human approach… it is evident that real people sit behind the organisation — people who are engaged, interested and willing to take the time to understand the work being done.

This relational approach matters. Charities spoke about feeling “seen and heard”, particularly during difficult periods, and highlighted the value of proportionate processes and open, honest conversations.

Alongside this, the Trust’s funding model stood out strongly. Multi-year unrestricted funding was repeatedly described as transformative:

Unrestricted funding… is what allows an organisation like ours to take risks, respond to emerging needs, and invest in the kind of slow, strategic work that doesn’t always fit neatly into a project grant.

Strikingly, however, this is still far from the norm. Despite growing momentum behind unrestricted funding across the sector, the reality for many organisations has yet to shift.

Multi-year, unrestricted funding is exceptionally rare — we currently hold just two such grants…

The feedback also suggests that flexible funding is closely linked to impact. Where organisations already have a strong track record, unrestricted, multi-year support enables them to be more strategic, resilient and responsive. Rather than being seen as a risk, this kind of funding can act as a catalyst for deeper and more sustained impact.

Grantees also highlighted how the Trust approaches non-financial support. Its flexible, responsive style, where support is offered rather than imposed, is widely valued.

Additional support can come with strings attached… intended to be supportive, but which actually can end up costing the charity. We don’t have this with Bromley.

This speaks to a wider issue of funder power dynamics. Even well-intentioned support can create pressure if it requires significant time or resources from organisations already under strain. So, the lesson is not simply to offer more, but to ensure that support is genuinely useful, proportionate, and shaped by what organisations need.

Taken together, these insights strongly affirm the direction of the Trust’s new strategy, which focuses on backing smaller, specialist organisations, supporting their expertise, and enabling them to contribute to improvements in policy and practice. Grantees also appreciate the Trust’s efforts to support collaboration across the sector, particularly given the challenging external context.

What this means for funders

These findings highlight that in turbulent contexts, openness, trust, and flexibility are not simply ‘nice to have’. Instead, they are strategic choices.

The Bromley Trust provides a clear example of what this can look like in practice, combining flexible funding, relational engagement, and deep sector understanding.

More broadly, this feedback from grantees should provide an opportunity for funders across the sector to build on this learning, deepening and scaling the practices that charities consistently say make the greatest difference:

• Make multi-year, unrestricted funding more common, particularly where organisations are demonstrating impact
• Keep processes proportionate, recognising the cumulative strain on small organisations
• Offer support carefully and responsively, avoiding unintended burden
• Invest in relationships, not just transactions
• Continue to listen — and act on what is heard

In a context like this, how funding is delivered is inseparable from the impact it enables.

Through Open for all, NPC is calling for a shift towards more open, responsive and power-aware funding. The message from grantees is clear: when funders listen and share power, impact improves. The task now is to make that approach the norm, not the exception.

[Image credit: Koestler Arts]