Tracking progress against delivering our strategy

“[The unrestricted funding] allowed us to let young people set the agenda… to be responsive quickly instead of waiting for funding.” Funded partner – focus group 

“It [the unrestricted funding] opened up more capacity for us… more time for dreaming.” Funded partner – focus group

“I feel we have nurtured a really positive space where people can say what’s on their mind, where people can give feedback, where people can disagree.” Young person – focus group 

About the report

In October 2022, we launched Building Communities of the Future Together, our strategy to help build fairer, more co-operative communities. Alongside the strategy, we shared a vision for future communities shaped by almost 100 young people from diverse backgrounds. Their views continue to guide our funding, campaigning and influencing work. 

This report shares what we learned about our progress between January and December 2024. It is our first annual report using a strategy-wide learning and evaluation framework and provides a baseline for understanding how our work is contributing to long-term change.

Our approach to funding 

Across our programmes, we provide flexible, unrestricted and long-term funding to people and organisations working to build stronger communities, where everyone can thrive.

We listen to, invest in and learn from young people who are shaping the future, organisations bringing fairer communities to life, and groups responding to unpredictable challenges. Our approach is grounded in co-operation, participation, trust and flexibility. We work in partnership across the Co-op, and the philanthropy and social change sectors. 

We are also on a journey to becoming a fully participatory grant maker, involving young people from the communities we support in decisions about how funding is used. Through programmes such as the Future Communities Fund, Young Gamechangers Fund and Funding Futures Programme, we support young people, youth-led organisations and social entrepreneurs to create change on issues linked to our strategic priorities, including diversity, equity and inclusion, youth activism, safety and sustainability. This report looks across our funding programmes, our Community Spaces loan portfolio, strategic funds, and programmes managed through delivery partners.

Our approach to learning and impact

In 2023, we worked with NCVO to co-create an organisational theory of change and develop an evaluation framework. This helps us collect consistent evidence about the impact of our work. We focused on 10 priority outcomes: five relating to young people and five relating to organisations we fund. To understand progress, we gathered evidence through surveys, interviews and focus groups with young people and funded partners. 

Data collection took place between November 2024 and mid-January 2025. We heard from 32 young people through the survey, with a further 10 young people taking part in focus groups or interviews. We also heard from 30 funded organisations through the survey, with 13 organisations taking part in focus groups or interviews. 

As this is our first annual learning report, the findings are indicative rather than definitive. They give us an important baseline for tracking change over time. We also recognise some limitations, including lower-than-expected survey response rates, later-than-planned fieldwork and reliance on self-reported evidence. For safeguarding reasons, only young people aged 16–25 were included this year. 

What we’ve learned so far

Key learnings from young people

The young people involved in this research included those we work with directly, those we fund, and those who are supported by our funded partners. Overall, they shared high levels of satisfaction with their involvement in Foundation-funded work. 94% were satisfied with the level of engagement, and 87% were satisfied with the quality of engagement. 

Young people took on meaningful roles, including shaping policy input, co-designing funds, making funding decisions and contributing to recruitment. However, their influence was not always consistent. Some felt they had significant power to shape decisions, while others felt their influence was more limited, particularly in higher-level governance spaces. 

We also saw strong examples of inclusive practice. Young people valued clear information, safe spaces to express themselves, flexible scheduling, online options, travel support, quiet spaces, small-group work and training before decision-making. Online engagement supported participation among many young people, although in-person activities were also seen as important for building confidence and deeper relationships. 

Young people told us that funded activities helped them create change in their communities. Examples included building safe spaces, support networks and advocacy campaigns. Young people felt most able to influence local change, while national systems such as transport and mental health services were harder to shift. 

We also heard that young people developed important skills, including teamwork, communication, leadership, facilitation and activism. Some described this as transformative, moving from feeling unable to speak in meetings to hosting events and leading work.

“I sat at the back of the meetings and didn’t say a single word for about six months…down the line, I’m able to work like this. I’ve hosted events… run events on mental health… I genuinely wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for being involved in a project like this.” Young person – focus group 

The value of flexible, unrestricted funding

Funded partners told us that our support helped them collaborate, strengthen their organisations and respond quickly to opportunities. Flexible and unrestricted funding improved financial resilience, staff retention, internal systems, safeguarding, evaluation, volunteer management and diversity, equity and inclusion work. Partners particularly valued our trust-based and relational approach, describing it as flexible, supportive and different from more transactional funding models.

Looking ahead

This report sets out clear next steps for strengthening our practice. We will continue to improve how young people influence strategic decisions, including being clearer about what is open to change and strengthening feedback loops so young people understand how their views have shaped decisions. We will also develop clearer guidance on paying young people, recognising and valuing their contributions. 

We will improve capacity building support for young people we fund, continue to advocate for longer-term unrestricted funding, and explore how funding can be paired with targeted support in areas such as HR, safeguarding and evaluation. 

Our learning journey is ongoing. We will monitor progress annually, using the 2024 findings as a benchmark for long-term change, and share what we learn to support wider conversations about participatory, flexible and trust-based funding.