What happens when funding is built on rust? Lessons from the Anchor Learning Programme
For too long, funding in the voluntary and community sector has been shaped by short timeframes, rigid outputs, and imbalanced power dynamics. City Bridge Foundation’s Anchor Programme, offers a compelling alternative - one rooted in trust, long-term commitment, and genuine partnership.
Delivered and facilitated by The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP), the Learning programme brings together second-tier, led by-and-for infrastructure organisations across London to explore how systems change actually happens, and what funders can do differently to support it. Here we present back our high level learning from the first two years of the programme.
Why the Anchor Programme Matters
Second-tier infrastructure organisations play a critical role in London’s civil society. They convene, advocate, and amplify the voices of communities, yet they are often underfunded, overstretched, and expected to deliver transformational change with limited resources.
The Anchor Programme is unique in that it provides long-term, core funding specifically for these organisations. But funding alone isn’t the whole story. The Learning Programme was designed to sit alongside financial support, creating space for reflection, collaboration and collective leadership.
As one funded organisation put it:
“This has been a highly empowering and validating experience… allowing us to reflect as allies on the areas that we are working on collectively.”
What Changed for Organisations?
In the first two years of funding, Anchor organisations used the space and stability provided to strengthen their foundations and expand their influence.
Stronger internal systems
Many invested in CRM, finance, and data systems - essential infrastructure that improved resilience, decision-making, and accountability as their work scaled.
Deeper convening and coalition-building
With fewer constraints, organisations reimagined how they brought people together, strengthened relationships with members and partners, and supported collective action across the sector.
Greater policy influence
Longer-term funding enabled sustained advocacy, media engagement, and strategic lobbying which are key levers for systems change that are often impossible under short-term grants.
As a result, organisations reported being more resilient, more networked, and more confident in taking informed risks.
The Power of Co-Design, Flexibility, and Relationships
Three features emerged as central to the programme’s success:
Co-design: From the outset, 22 civil society organisations helped shape the fund’s vision, objectives, and monitoring framework. This allowed us to be iterative as the Learning programme developed, meaning we could shift and change direction based on the needs of the organisations involved.
A balance of flexibility and structure: we recognised that each organisation was entering the learning programme from a different perspective and experience. We made sure that sessions had clear structure, with collaborative tasks and resources provided before and after sessions. This helped organisations join the space feeling prepared but not overburdened. We also provided 1-1 catch ups and offline input for those unable to join sessions.
Relational working: Trust-based relationships between funders and organisations transformed monitoring and evaluation from an extractive process into a supportive one. Learning sessions and site visits strengthened partnership rather than reinforcing hierarchy.
Peer learning, in particular, became a vital space, not only for strategic insight, but also for emotional support during challenging times.
What This Means for the Sector
The Anchor Learning Programme demonstrates how funding is given matters as much as how much is given.
When funders invest in:
long-term commitments,
flexibility and trust,
co-designed processes, and
intentional spaces for learning,
organisations are equipped to collaborate, innovate, and influence the systems shaping people’s lives. Perhaps most importantly, the programme shows that power can be shared differently. Funded organisations described feeling consulted as equals, with their lived experience genuinely valued.
Looking Ahead
As pressures on the voluntary and community sector continue to grow, the Anchor Programme offers a hopeful and practical model for change. It challenges funders and organisations alike to rethink relationships, redistribute power, and centre trust as a driver of impact.
To read more about the funded Anchor organisations, click here.