How is the funding landscape changing?

Across the funding landscape, we are seeing a shift toward place, systems change, collaboration, and community power. New pools of funding are opening, but delivery organisations – the community layer delivering these agendas – remain under-resourced, overburdened, and excluded from conversations where priorities are set.

For charities and social purpose organisations, navigating these changes means more than simply finding the next funder. Sustainability depends on understanding where capital is flowing, what funders are trying to achieve, and which opportunities genuinely fit their mission, model and capacity.

Three shifts we are seeing in the funding landscape

1. Place-based funding continues to rise in importance

The Burnham government’s emphasis on devolution signals that the place-based agenda will remain a priority, aligned with the Our Place to Give plan.

The plan aims to grow place-based giving, connect philanthropy with local need, and make it easier for philanthropists, government and civil society to work together in places, while recognising that local organisations often lack the capacity and networks to access philanthropic investment.

NPC has also highlighted that place-based philanthropy can offer long-term, flexible, and locally rooted funding, but only if it is coordinated well and connected to the organisations closest to communities.

2. Funders increasingly want collaboration and cross-mission impact

The funding ‘language’ is changing. More funders are talking about systems, ecosystems, prevention, partnership, and ‘moving beyond grants’ – reflecting the fact that issues are increasingly intersectional and do not fit neatly into single-mission categories. Climate action overlaps with poverty, place, and resilience. Youth work overlaps with digital inclusion, belonging, and mental health.

Delivery organisations are being asked to collaborate more, provide more evidence, and demonstrate systems-level change. This often requires additional core capacity and resources, which delivery organisations should factor in.

3. New forms of capital are available, but not every organisation needs the same kind of capital

There is growing interest in philanthropy, private wealth, corporate giving, social investment, and blended finance. Barclays’ research on modern philanthropy suggests that giving by UK high-net-worth individuals is rising, but donors still face barriers around understanding the charity sector and identifying aligned causes.

At the same time, NPC’s framework for segmenting the impact economy shows that different organisations need different kinds of money; some remain grant-sustained, while others – with the appropriate business model, governance, and income streams – can use repayable finance or blended models. The framework demonstrates that this kind of diversification into patient capital can strengthen resilience, but only if the form of capital fits the organisation’s model, mission, and ability to repay.

Three questions delivery organisations should ask before pursuing a new funding opportunity

1. Where are we genuinely additional?

Identify the specific gap you fill: who you reach, what relationships you hold, the local knowledge you bring, and the part of the system you connect with. NPC’s theory of change in ten steps can help you with this thinking. If the funding does not address the gap, the opportunity may not be the right fit.

2. What kind of capital does our work need?

Separate what needs core grant funding, what could be funded through a place-based partnership, what could attract corporate or philanthropic support, and what should not be made repayable. Different types of capital can be leveraged for different purposes.

3. What is this funding asking of us?

There are hidden costs to pursuing funding: partnership time, evidence requirements, reporting, governance, and staff capacity. You should pursue funding if the opportunity helps you strengthen your mission. If it pulls you away from your core work, pause.

Funding is no longer just a transaction between funder and grantee. It is increasingly about ecosystems, influence, evidence, and place.

At Ignites 2026, we’ll be exploring these questions with leaders from across charities, philanthropy, and social investment as well as discussing where capital is moving, who gets access to it, and how we can build a funding landscape that helps organisations deliver real, lasting impact.