Hackney Giving distributed funding throughout the pandemic on behalf of the City and Hackney Public Health team: the Covid-19 Information Grants and Covid-19 Information Small Grants were a large part of our grant-making in 2020 and 2021. These programmes have been evaluated and a report has now been published.

The distribution of grants ran alongside the Community Champions programme managed by Volunteer Centre Hackney. All holders of Covid-19 Information Grants were required to have a Community Champion (either a volunteer or a member of staff) based at their organisation. The evaluation covers both the grants programme and the delivery of the Community Champions programme and identifies both successes and learning points.

In particular, the report demonstrates the value of the voluntary and community sector in supporting communities that statutory provision is not reaching. It states that “through this programme, the Public Health team was said to have achieved much greater reach and engagement with diverse communities and groups than would have been possible otherwise”. However, duplication between two parallel programmes involving many of the same people was raised as an issue as well as the significant numbers of meetings required for grant-holders.

Hackney Giving’s role as a trusted and experienced grant-maker was recognised. The report highlights that Hackney Giving “brought substantial professional grant-making expertise, alongside experience of partnering with the VCS and the public sector. Hackney Giving had the capacity, skills and established infrastructure to quickly set up and efficiently process the funding and regular grants payments.”

Read the full report.