Overview of the Financial Inclusion Programme
Between 2009 and 2012 the focus for the Foundation’s main grant giving programme will again be Financial Inclusion.
As part of their work to try to re-balance the financial services market, Trustees wish to create conditions throughout the UK under which access to appropriate financial services might be permanently improved for those who are currently excluded, particularly those on low incomes or otherwise vulnerable to market failure. (Why this matters to us.) These services include banking, free debt advice, savings and affordable credit.
The Foundation has limited resources and will therefore only fund work that will clearly make a strategic contribution to our goals. Please note that this means that the Foundation will not be funding work that only delivers financial inclusion services to individuals or groups in local communities or only to defined communities of interest.
By the end of the 3 years, we wish to have contributed towards the achievement of 6 specific outcomes: (Please click on each in turn to reveal further details.)
- A shared vision amongst key stakeholders of what financial inclusion means and the ways it might be achieved.
- Universal banking access: identification of viable models for community-focused banking services, along with sustainable sources of capital and an appropriate regulatory framework. (Open to applications.)
- Sustainable approaches to funding debt advice: the development of sustainable, accessible, efficient and on-going funding streams. (Open to applications.)
- Increasing savings: helping low-income groups to build savings, as a way to help combat poverty and develop future personal autonomy. (Open to applications.)
- Clarification of the role of affordable credit in building greater financial inclusion: there are still questions about the role of credit in our society and these should be explored and clarified. (Open to applications.)
- Sustaining the progress made towards financial inclusion thus far: identifying and supporting third sector providers of financial services that are used by low income people.
We will pursue these outcomes through a combination of responsive grant-making and proactive engagement, working with those with the expertise, understanding, and ambition to further the cause of financial inclusion:
- For the 'shared vision' and 'sustaining the progress' outcomes we will be inviting tenders for or commissioning pieces of work amongst organisations with an existing track record in this field; we do not therefore intend to consider any unsolicited applications under these headings.
- We will accept applications under the other four outcomes on an 'open', reactive, basis - as indicated above.
The Foundation will work with all of its grantees to maximise the impact of the work that it funds through effective dissemination, networking and evaluation.
Trustees reviewed the scope and content of the Foundation's work on Financial Inclusion, as it neared the end of its initial phase, and during this process we temporarily closed to new funding applications.
We opened again for funding applications in early October 2009 and are inviting applications that can contribute to any one of four new 'open' outcomes.
