Racial Justice Funding

The Trust audits its grants annually using the Funders for Racial Equality (FREA) Audit Tool. The audit helps us determine not only the proportion of our funding that goes towards racial justice issues, but the proportion of our grants that go to organisations run by and for people from racialised groups, and whether grants are intended to address the root causes or the consequences of structural racism.

The audit is now in its sixth cohort with the results of 23 self-selecting funders (including Barrow Cadbury Trust) audited – the largest analysis to date.  It describes a number of ways in which funders tackle racial inequity.  However, the data and analysis does not speak to the broader funding landscape, where the picture of funding to benefit communities experiencing racial inequity is under-represented.

The 2025 analysis showed a slight decline in the number of grants to race equality organisations compared to 2024.  In last year’s analysis we saw a big uptick in the number of grants going to organisations led by people from racialised groups (16% compared to 5% and 7% in the previous two audits).  This year has seen a slight drop in the numbers of grants awarded to 14%, but the total proportion of the grants budget staying the same at 18%.

In 2022-23, a significant number of Connect Fund grants went to organisations led by and for racially minoritised people. This dropped back in 2023-24, but was compensated for by changes in other programmes, notably the Criminal Justice programme with two large grants being made to Black-led organisations.  It is worth noting that the proportion of grant funding going to this group of organisations closely mirrors the proportion of grants made.  This contrasts with the situation for many other funders, where groups led by racialised groups tend to receive smaller grants than mainstream ones. 

There has been a fall in proportion of funding going to work intended to improve racial equity, 40%, down from 47% in 2022-23 but similar to previous years (£38% and 39%).  The peak was driven mainly by one of the Connect Fund priorities at that time being consolidation of its diversity work (the small number of grants given in the final phase of the Connect Fund were mainly challenge fund grants).  Migration grants, as in previous years, are all deemed to be intended to improve racial equity.