Islington Giving – Collaborating around a community divide

Picture by Simon Townsley

Islington Giving is the latest twist on a collaborative trend, bringing together six local trusts of varying age and size and one national organisation –The Breadsticks Foundation, City Bridge Trust,  Cripplegate Foundation, Richard Cloudesley’s Charity, The Morris Charitable Trust, Voluntary Action Islington and Unltd – to leverage their strengths, local understanding, skills and resources in tackling the inequity between the ‘two Islingtons’ – one very poor and one very wealthy.

The inspiration for the coalition was a 2008 report published by the Cripplegate Foundation called Invisible Islington, which looked at the poverty that exists in the borough and explored the factors that make it so entrenched – ill-health, debt, isolation and lack of opportunity.

Philanthropist Jack Morris, founder of the Business Design Centre and The Morris Charitable Trust, explains the thinking behind Islington Giving: “We saw a fantastic opportunity to pool our expertise and leverage funds and each other’s reputations.

 “Underpinning our thinking is an absolute belief that it is in the sum of our parts that we can help most.  Whilst independently we and others can help good things to happen, we can achieve so much more together. And it will be in extending this spirit, in bringing people and organisations together, that Islington Giving can achieve its objectives most easily. Collaboration, partnership, the sum of our parts – call it what you like – is not only important to us but it is a distinctive feature,” says Morris.

There is more than a whiff of Big Society about Islington Giving, which takes full responsibility for itself, including raising £3m over the next three years to fund the work it wants to do.

It has had a very successful year, raising over £1m, given out grants of over £500,000, been featured in the Government’s Giving White Paper as an innovative example of local philanthropy and been endorsed by Islington Council’s Fairness Commission.

 It has set up new partnerships with BT and Macquarie Bank to develop staff volunteering in Islington for the first time and created and funded a new grants programme of £500,000 in 2011 to support young people, identify its poorest residents and tackle deprivation.

 The campaign aims to attract donors of all levels and all kinds, whether it’s time, money or skills, and this is another of its strengths.

A local marketing campaign to raise awareness of the project in the community includes a taxi bearing the campaign branding and involves the owner of a local fish and chip shop who has added £1 to the price of his meals that will go directly to the fund.

The fact that such depravation and extreme wealth sit cheek by jowl is seen as a ‘geographic advantage’ by the group in engaging the community.

“We know that Islington has a vibrancy, energy and wealth of talent that is hard to beat. But there’s also much about the borough that perhaps isn’t recognised; London’s richest and poorest residents exist side by side but live entirely different lives. It was in considering how life really is for many of our neighbours that Islington Giving sprang to life,” says Morris.

“Our aspiration for Islington Giving is that it will become a leading example of how all of the community can pull together to address the root causes of social disadvantage. We firmly believe that what we are looking to achieve in Islington – and the means by which we are approaching the challenge – is new and innovative, but also entirely replicable across other parts of the country,” he adds.

 www.islingtongiving.org.uk

 Islington Statistics

•           Islington has the highest rate of suicide for men in England

•           The number of five to 17-year-olds with mental health disorders is 36% higher than the national average

•           3,000 people registered with a doctor in Islington have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or other psychoses.

•           The substance misuse rate for 15 to 64-years-olds is more than two-and-a-half times the national average.