Civic Power Fund Theory of Change

Our vision	A world where every person has the power to shape their quality of their life, community and future.
Our mission	To build lasting civic power through community organising. By investing in grassroots organising, we can unleash the power of people to improve their lives and their communities and create common cause in pursuit of the social, environmental, and economic justice vital to a flourishing democracy.
Our end goals	A well-resourced ecosystem of diverse and impactful community organising infrastructure groups. These groups are training and supporting grassroots community organisers across the UK and collaborating nationally and globally to win change.	A strong and diverse network of local groups who are accountable to their community and building power through organising. These groups are working together to win change and holding local and national decision makers to account.	A greater proportion (minimum 12% of social justice grantmaking) of UK philanthropic resources are directed towards community organising. This is reaching grassroots groups rooted in and accountable to their community.
Why?	Community organising infrastructure provides two vital functions: training the next generation of organisers and leaders curating places and spaces for communities to come together and amplify their impact. Yet infrastructure work is significantly underfunded – especially when led by minoritised and marginalised communities. This means organisations are unable to build and grow, limiting the potential of groups to win the systemic shifts they seek.	Communities across the UK are disconnected from their democracy. This means our politics consistently works against them. Minoritised and marginalised communities are uniquely let down by our systems. Evidence shows that local groups trusted by and rooted in their community are uniquely well placed to build and hold the power of these communities, winning change that matters to them and contributing to long-term systemic shifts in our policy and our politics.	Currently only 0.3% of social justice grantmaking goes towards community organising. While it is vital that community groups have independent income streams, philanthropy offers a uniquely flexible source of capital that could and should be resourcing these groups. Organising is also a proven route to impact. Philanthropic funders have an outsized impact on the tactics social justice actors pursue and should be allocating resources to what works.
So we…	Provide long-term and flexible funding to emergent organising infrastructure across the UK. Create places and spaces for these organisations to come together and learn from one another and build networks. Incubate innovative ideas and actions to strengthen the UK community organising field; championing organisers ideas, taking risks and finding opportunities to help grow and sustain their work. For example, an Alliance for Youth Organising	Identify key geographies with unique potential for impact and learning. Currently we are working in Manchester and North Wales. Provide coordinated long-term resources to grassroots groups to organise their community. Support these groups to boost internal organising capacity and secure independent revenue. Through network effects, encourage cross-geography action and share lessons that can be replicated across the UK and globally.	Make a collective, nationwide case for investment in grassroots community organising. ‘Show by doing’; consistently sharing lessons and impact. Work alongside our partners to strategically influence key philanthropic and social justice stakeholders to shift more and better resources into organising. For example, network building across key funders and large charities interested in investing in organising; learning exchanges.
Our central thesis	Innovative community organising is taking place across the country. This is often led by women, people of colour, immigrant and LGBTQ communities, and other minoritised and marginalised communities. Yet this work is significantly underfunded, meaning these organisers and their organisations are unable to build and grow. We know that organisers are best placed to build the infrastructure they need. By investing in them for the long-term, we can nurture the next generation of leaders, who in turn will help build the winning coalitions vital to systemic change.	Organising builds the power of people to take action on the issues that matter to them. It transforms individual and community outcomes and builds the foundations from which successful movements can grow. All across the UK, groups are trying to organise their communities. But these groups are starved of cash and without the support to deepen and grow their impact. By combining long-term, flexible funding with collaboration, capacity building, and cohort building, we can build thriving nodes of civic power and show others what is possible.	Funding organising well requires shifting power and control to communities. This is a massive cultural shift for most existing sources of charitable giving. An intermediary can both show what is possible and move resources at scale, in turn shifting funding practices for the long-haul. Short-term, competitive and project-based funding is also inhibiting long-term people power. That is why we are making a collective case for more and better funding for this work.
What will we measure?	We are mapping existing organising capacity across the UK to understand the current gaps and opportunities. We will then create a field building analysis to solidify how we track growth. We are interested in the Field Catalyst model pioneered by Tamarac in Canada.	Working with Hidden Depths Research and community organisers, we have developed a learning framework that tracks whether civic power is being built and deployed in place. We are rolling this out with our partners in Manchester and North Wales.	In partnership with the Hour is Late, the Civic Power Fund releases an annual map of where social justice funding goes. This tells us the proportion of social justice grantmaking that goes towards organising. We will track this over time.
Our values	Because we meet the world as it is not as we wish it to be, the values that guide our work are as important as the ends we seek. Self-determination. We trust people to build strategies and make decisions to shape the institutions, actions and policies impacting their lives. Solidarity. We help to build solidarity within and between communities to achieve the collective action vital to shifting the balance of power through democracy. ‍ Justice. We work to dismantle the barriers to racial, economic, gender and LGBTQ+ justice that are standing in the way of full democratic participation and we foster representation and liberation through all our work. ‍ Dignity. We value our common humanity and act with kindness, care and respect to build a democracy that involves and brings out the best in all of us. Humility. We are committed to listening to, learning from and following the lead of the communities, groups and individuals doing the work. ‍ Bravery. We recognise that building power is hard and takes time and courage, so we will challenge dishonesty, fraud and disinformation and we will reward risk and embrace failure - and learn from both.‍ Hope. We are optimistic about the future because we passionately believe that organised people have the power to shape their lives and the world for the better.