Investor Programme - Supporting Families (2005 - 2010)

(Closed to new applicants)

In 2005, the Nationwide Foundation launched the Investor Programme, which was developed from the experience of the New Generation Initiative (NGI), a previous large grants programme which supported 'parenting'.

The Investor Programme aims to take a preventative approach and addresses root causes affecting families and family breakdown and it focuses on particular social issues. (We make no judgment on the composition of what constitutes a family or similar support network.) The Supporting Families Investor Programme seeks to reduce crime, violence, strengthen families and make our communities safer, better places to be. The Foundation agreed to support six charities under each of the three aims:

Domestic Violence - To promote the well-being of young men, women and children whose lives have been affected by domestic violence and to reduce the prevalence of domestic violence through increased service provision, education and awareness raising
Prisoners' Families - To improve the quality of life of families with a member or members in prison, through the provision of services responsive to their needs
Young Offenders - To provide young people who are or have been involved with the criminal justice system with a rehabilitation programme designed to obtain the skills, confidence and personal support networks to enable them to lead fulfilled and successful lives

More information on why we chose to support these beneficiary groups and which charities we agreed to support is provided under the above links.

The Investor Programme builds on the lessons of the independently evaluated NGI and encompasses the following key practices:

Streamlined application processes - one page expressions of interest are invited and assessed. Those charities which are successful at this stage undergo detailed interview, followed by an invitation for a very limited number of applicants visited to submit detailed bids. This aims to save charities time and not take them away from vital service delivery and increases the chance of a bid being successful to 90%.
Long term, three year, flexible funding for core, development and project work - This programme offered grants of £150,000 over three years. Through the grants we aim to support a charity in any way it needs in order to maximise the impacts to beneficiaries. We also welcome charities to request changes to how the grant is being used as we respect that needs and issues change over time and we recognise it is important to respond to this in order to achieve maximum benefit.
Light tough monitoring and support - Foundation staff visit charities every quarter to build relationships with them, their staff and beneficiaries, in order that the Foundation can ensure work is being delivered as planned, understand their issues better and respond to these and offer support.
Partnership working - the Foundation's support and encouragement of partnership working amongst the charities it funds is unique. Through this programme, the Foundation pays for the charities it funds to come together twice a year with an independent facilitator to identify ways in which they can work together for increased benefits. The Foundation also funds the charities to visit one another in order to build relationships and share learning. In particular, the Foundation allocated to the charities funded through each of the three aims, £250,000 towards partnership ideas which they identified amongst themselves. The resulting ideas included shared training, consultancy and individual projects.
Independent evaluation - following a tender process the Foundation appointed independent consultants Rocket Science to evaluate the Investor Programme so the Foundation could learn how to further improve its future grant making. Rocket Science also evaluates each charity funded and provides them with a report on the achievements of their work and lessons learned, so they can improve their own services and evidence the benefits of their work to other funders. The evaluation will continue for one year after the grant funding ends in order to capture any longer term benefits achieved with the Foundation's support.
Exit strategy development - the Foundation has worked in partnership with the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) to provide each charity with a consultant to work with them on developing an exit strategy to prepare them for the end of the Foundation's funding. This work starts at the beginning of the final grant year.

The findings of the independent evaluation of this grant programme will be available in March 2011.