City Bridge Foundation will close its rolling grant programmes for a year due to an “unprecedented surge” in demand, while a recent £200m funding uplift is also set to end.
The charity, which looks after Tower Bridge and four other Thames crossings, said the closure will allow the foundation to process hundreds of outstanding applications and prepare for a major funding review.
Current grant holders will not be affected, the funder said, while new applications received by noon on 8 October will still be considered.
Giles Shilson, the foundation’s chair, said: “This is not a decision we take lightly and we don’t underestimate the impact it will have on some charities who may miss out on funding.
“However, the unprecedented demand we’re facing means that we already have more applications than we’re able to fund, and we don’t want charities to spend time on applications unlikely to be successful.”
He added: “Closing our programmes for a year means we can clear the backlog of applications and allocate funding where it’s most needed, before we launch our new funding policy.”
City Bridge Foundation said the closure will not affect the foundation’s collaborative, cross-sector funding schemes and its strategic programmes such as its suicide prevention work.
£200m funding uplift to end
The 900-year-old charity said the closure comes as an extra £200m of funding it made available five years ago comes to an end.
This extra money was approved in 2019 and resulted in an “unprecedented” 75% to 90% success rate in grant applications, the funder said, depending on the grant programmes.
The extra funding from this uplift will gradually reduce over the next two years, the charity said, with grants returning to normal levels of around £30m a year in 2026-27.
Shilson said: “The extra £200m we’ve been able to provide over the last five years played a vital role during Covid, the cost-of-living crisis and the many other challenges the sector has faced, but this funding is now coming to an end.”
City Bridge Foundation is set to agree a new 10-year funding policy next autumn, aimed at offering a more focused approach to target funding where it’s needed most.
More information about the funding programme closures is available here.
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