Funding for future: The Regenerative Futures Fund

Posted on 21 March 2025 by Chris Allen in Funding City of Edinburgh Council long term

Far too often, third sector funding is restricted to one year, leaving organisations stuck in a cycle of applying year upon year. The Regenerative Futures Fund is taking a radically different approach.

The Regenerative Futures Fund is a ten-year fund for Edinburgh. It puts decision-making power into the hands of the people who are most often excluded. It gives organisations the opportunity to think and plan for the long-term.

The fund will be delivered in two phases: capacity building (funding for approx. 25 organisations), followed by the 10-year fund (funding for 10-15 organisations).

The 10 year fund will be for collectives and organisations addressing the root causes of poverty and racism in a just and environmentally sustainable way, open to working in a collective with others through a programme of shared learning and imagination activities throughout the grant and based in Edinburgh. Funding will be at a level of £50-£100K a year for 10 years. A minimum threshold of 50% of the full cohort of funded organisations will have diverse leadership with a focus on anti-racism in the context of ending poverty.

The Fund aims to:

• Support organisations and collectives to work on long-term solutions to the complex problem of tackling the root causes of poverty, racism and the environmental crisis.
• Engage with local authority leaders, funders and others to learn and collaborate with funded organisations on shared objectives and wider system change
• Support a more diverse and experience-informed group of voices to shape change and direct resources towards the programme goals
• Create new solutions to long-term entrenched challenges faced by Edinburgh and its diverse communities

Organisations have until 22 April 2025 to use the eligibility criteria checker. Expressions of interest are then due by May 2025.

The Regenerative Futures Fund is a pooled fund (sometimes called a ‘funder intermediary’ or a ‘funder collaboration’) contributed to by a range of funders, including Foundation Scotland, The National Lottery Community Fund Scotland, The Robertson Trust, City of Edinburgh Council, Turn2us Edinburgh Trust and more. This combination of organisations (e.g. statutory bodies, philanthropic and community foundations, etc.) shows that cross-sector collaboration can open up such possibilities for the third sector.

Long term funding shouldn't be a radical act. SCVO's Policy team continues to call for Fair Funding for the sector: a long-term, flexible, sustainable, and accessible approach to funding. Progress has been made, with the Scottish Government committing to Fairer Funding by 2026. However, Fairer Funding hasn’t yet been defined and SCVO are calling for the Scottish Government’s Fairer Funding principles to align with SCVO’s definition of Fair Funding – developed through significant research and engagement with the voluntary sector.

The Regenerative Futures Fund is Edinburgh-only. It will be interesting to see if this could inspire other local, regional or national funder collaborations in the years to come.

View the Regenerative Futures Fund on Funding Scotland here.