Our first grants under our new strategy

As 2025 drew to a close, our Grants & Learning Committee made the first grants under our new funds, Strengthening Justice and Emerging Justice, for applications submitted in September 2025. These aim to build the long-term resilience and impact of organisations who are using, or would like to use, the law to drive a wider movement for justice.

We awarded just over £5 million in 26 grants to social justice organisations across the UK. 22 of these were under Strengthening Justice and 4 were under Emerging Justice.

With a starting point of over 100 applications, tough decisions followed an intensive and multi-layered assessment period, putting into practice new guidance and criteria. The grants show how the new programme builds on our previous strategy, with renewed funding for existing partners alongside reaching organisations we did not know before. 

As expected in this first year, more applications and grants were under Strengthening Justice, where we already have networks among legal organisations.

While diverse in many ways – geography, theme, size, community of focus, area of law, approach – crucially our new grant partners all share two key features. They are able to demonstrate accountability to communities they work alongside in seeking social change. And they are either using and shaping the law to help achieve these change goals, or would like to test and develop an approach to doing so. 

All organisations funded through Emerging Justice are ​‘by and for’, that is, made up of the communities they serve. Some Strengthening Justice grant partners are too. Others were able to demonstrate meaningful and creative approaches to working alongside communities. 

Lived experience plays an important role in this – although we do not ask people to disclose personal circumstances or experiences. However, in our assessment process we also considered accountability more broadly, for example how/​whether an organisation’s strategy, priorities and activities are led and shaped by communities. We wanted to know if this is simply consultative or whether the community has an active role in shaping the organisation’s decision-making.

In weighing this up, we found that organisations approach accountability in a wide variety of ways, but the strongest approaches centred the communities themselves in strategic decision-making: where power was either shared or held by those groups. We looked for examples where an organisation had adapted as a result of community input, or where organisations could demonstrate that a particular priority had been informed by their community. 

We also looked at the extent to which organisations built or shared power – for example, whether they identified those within their community whose voices are not usually heard and took proactive, practical steps to address those gaps. 

Recognising that learning is key to accountability, we were interested in applicants’ thinking about what might come next. We are conscious it is difficult to be honest with funders about challenges, but nevertheless we had interesting conversations about what accountability meant to different organisations. 

For Strengthening Justice, funded partners demonstrated a track record in using and shaping the law to drive change goals. In Emerging Justice, they were able to tell us how they would develop and test an approach to doing so. 

We made grants across a range of social justice areas, with the largest number focusing on economic and social rights, racial justice, strengthening equality and human rights legislation and violence against women and girls. 

We were looking for organisations that had a strong focus on campaigning for wider change rather than change at an individual level, for example through advice or casework. 

The approaches to using the law include working collaboratively with communities through public inquiry mechanisms to push for greater state accountability, using community organising methods to campaign for change in the law, or using strategic litigation and policy influencing to achieve social justice goals. 

In our decision-making, we considered power sharing here too. We recognise that the law can be a lever for wider change when used creatively and collaboratively – and in particular when part of a wider movement for justice. We looked at the ways in which organisations were collaborating in their legal work, and whether they were taking a proactive approach to using the law to build power. 

Most applicants were stronger on either accountability or use of the law. However, there were three organisations who were very strong on both, so our Grants & Learning Committee felt able to award our first five-year grants to them.

We have funded broadly, in response to need, and in future may prioritise underfunded thematic issues as the external context continues to shift. We will continue to share what we are funding, where we see gaps and what we are learning.

A full list of our new grant partners is below and will also be published on 360 Giving in line with our values and IVAR commitment as an open and trusting funder. 

Four grants made to community-led/‘by and for’ organisations to explore how the law and legal tools can further their campaigning goals: 

• Anti Racist Cumbria: Tackling and ending racism in Cumbria, with the goal of making Cumbria the UK’s first actively anti-racist county.
• Black South West Network: A Black-led racial justice organisation, based in Bristol and working across south-west England to dismantle systemic racial inequality.
• Kairos Women Working Together: A Coventry-based organisation run by women, for women, supporting women facing multiple disadvantage and who are subject to or at risk of sexual exploitation.
• Streets Kitchen: A grassroots group supporting those experiencing homelessness. Our grant will further their legal work, which began with an outreach legal clinic. 

22 grants* made to organisations using and shaping the law with their communities: 

• Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit: ATLEU use and reform the law to secure safety, human rights and social justice for survivors of human trafficking, slavery and exploitation.
• Black Equity Organisation: An independent, national Black civil rights organisation created to dismantle systemic racism in Britain.
• British Institute of Human Rights: A national charity working with communities to use the Human Rights Act for practical change and social justice.
• Central England Law Centre: Working across Coventry and Birmingham, CELC are working to embed rights in their communities to reduce inequalities, challenge unfair systems and advance social justice.
• Centre for Military Justice: CMJ use the Human Rights Act and other legal tools to hold the UK military to account, working with serving or former members of the Armed Forces or their bereaved families.
• Covid 19 Bereaved Families for Justice: Formed by families who lost a loved one to Covid and now with over 7,000 members, this member-led organisation is working to hold the government to account both inside and outside the Covid-19 Inquiry.
• Family Rights Group: Family Rights Group aim to shape the child welfare system through combining legal and social work expertise. 
• Greater Manchester Law Centre: GMLC campaign alongside communities across Manchester for a range of community justice goals.
• Human Rights Consortium Scotland: A civil society network working across Scotland to defend and promote human rights.
• Inclusion Barnet: A ​‘by and for’ organisation delivering inclusive community services in Barnet and influencing national change through campaigns and partnerships.
• Inclusion London: A ​‘by and for’ organisation supporting Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations in London and campaigning for equality for Deaf and Disabled people.
• Inquest: Inquest work directly with bereaved people to establish the truth about deaths in the care of the state and hold the government, state and corporate bodies to account.
• JustRight Scotland: JustRight Scotland use the law to defend and extend people’s rights in Scotland, working with people and communities to change broken systems as well as individual people’s lives.
• Muslim Women’s Network UK: A ​‘by and for’ organisation based in Birmingham which provides direct support to Muslim women and girls in need and uses their experience to improve their rights through advocacy, campaigning and capacity building.
• Public Interest Law Centre: London-based law centre which works with communities and grassroots groups to challenge injustice using legal representation, strategic litigation, research and legal education.
• Resolve Poverty: A Manchester based anti-poverty organisation working with local authorities and partners across the country to see an end to poverty.
• Suzy Lamplugh Trust: Suzy Lamplugh Trust push for systemic change in both policy and practice to reduce the risk of stalking and harassment and ensure that victims are better supported and protected.
• United Voices of the World: A community trade union working across the lowest-paid and most precarious sectors of the economy using casework, organising and legal action for change.
• Worker Support Centre: A Perthshire-based organisation working with migrant workers at risk of exploitation across Scotland, with a focus on social care and agricultural labour.
• The Zaccheus 2000 Trust: Z2K work towards ending UK poverty through campaigning for change in partnership with experts by experience, as well as providing advice and representation services.

*Two organisations will be added to this list pending signature of their grant agreements