Black Lives Matter. The London Community Foundation (LCF) stands with people of colour in their grief and anger at George Floyd's senseless killing and many other injustices suffered over many years. We acknowledge that racism and deep inequality still exist in the UK.
LCF has a long and proud history of investing in London’s grassroots organisations, including BAME-led charities and community groups. Reflecting our capital’s incredible diversity, more than 40% of our current COVID-19 Response funds have been committed to supporting BAME communities.
As a Community Foundation and independent charity, LCF’s purpose is to support grassroots organisations that represent the communities they serve. Yet without the community trust, reach and expertise held by grassroots organisations, we are acutely aware that the funds we manage and distribute would be simply unable to support the social change or contribute to the greater equality we seek.
As a funder, we will continue to focus on addressing the power imbalance between funders and beneficiaries, and to ensure that we recognise, in the way we work, how underinvestment impacts levels of equality, community representation and the resilience of organisations.
We have long known of the inequalities within the charity sector. We support those who are putting a mirror up to all of us.
At LCF, we are committed to ensuring that how we are governed, our team and our partnerships all reflect the true diversity of London. We need to challenge ourselves and be challenged. We will fall short at times, but we will continue to learn and to support pro-active long-term change for grassroots organisations and the communities they serve.