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Today, Comic Relief is unveiling its new grants strategy, designed in response to the ever-changing world we live in to make sure we continue to maximise the impact we make here in the UK and across some of the world’s poorest communities.
Over recent years the world has experienced rapid change, from the growth of incredible life-changing digital innovations, to rapid urbanisation and the extreme surges in the mass movement of people to the introduction of the universal Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, extreme poverty and deprivation remain a devastating reality for millions of people around the world, whilst millions remain at threat from serious diseases such as malaria and HIV. In the UK, families are facing growing challenges from mental ill health, lack of opportunities for young people, dementia and ageing, as charities are having to meet greater and increasingly complex need, often with declining resources.
In response to this changing environment and building on our 30 years of grant making experience, we have refreshed our strategy to enable us to continue to fund a range of partners and projects whilst also supporting new initiatives that will help us to drive great ideas and sustainable change.
We will focus our grant making on four programme areas, that will help us best achieve our vision of ‘A Just World Free from Poverty’, in which everyone is safe, healthy, educated and empowered. These are:
Investing in children and young people to be ready for the future
Empowering women and girls to be free to lead the lives they choose
Improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable and disadvantaged people
Building stronger communities in areas of disadvantage, deprivation and poverty
We will also continue to fund projects that support ‘Tech for Good’ and ‘Sport for Change’. The new strategy also puts people at the very heart of our grant making approach. We will work in greater partnership with the organisations we fund on the ground to co-create solutions, with an increasing emphasis on helping people find their own solutions to the challenges they face.
Lenny Henry, trustee and co-founder of Comic Relief, said: “Since Comic Relief was created over 30 years ago, we have always prided ourselves on being a charity that listens to the changing needs of the people and organisations we set out to help. The new Comic Relief grants strategy has been designed so that we can continue to work towards our vision of a ‘just world, free from poverty’ where everyone is safe, healthy, educated and empowered.”
Watch Lenny talk more about our new grants strategy(opens in new window), read about our upcoming initiatives(opens in new window), or find out about our mental health work(opens in new window).
