In order to achieve our mission of ending local inequality, we must end racial injustice wherever it shows up in Camden

Our Racial Justice Strategy

 

Our Approach

As Camden Giving strives to end racial injustice we are committed to working to 3 principles:

  1. Transparency. This work should be public and honest about it’s flaws.

  2. Continual Learning. As we all learn, we should acknowledge that our plans may change, but our commitment will not.

  3. Resourcing. We know this work isn’t free, we will fundraise for internal and external racial justice work.

 

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What we want to see

Internally

The Camden Giving staff team is ethnically diverse and it is important to consider how we manage racial justice within the team as well as through our work. 

The staff survey and sessions with BRAP have highlighted that there are many things happening well internally and the team are keen to cement these things so they can’t be lost. 

Staff expressed that the current racial justice document felt unfamiliar, so this strategy review has been created by the entire team over a series of weeks. 

Participatory Grantmaking

Camden Giving gains from working with residents who have first-hand experience of issues we address, particularly the marginalisation of black and ethnic minority communities. Because of the time and knowledge that individuals give to overcoming inequalities, we are able to fund work that is appropriate to Camden’s communities. This labour disproportionately falls on black and ethnic minority residents within our work, working with residents in a time limited has the potential to feel extractive. 

We are going to develop a governance structure that means that Camden residents are able to influence and benefit from decisions at Camden Giving for a longer period, this will be tailored to ensuring communities who have experienced racism are involved in our work for longer, but we expect it will benefit any Camden resident who has experience of inequality. 

The We Make Camden Kit has broken down barriers that exclude people from accessing money for social action, more than half of citizen grantees are black or ethnic minority. But we also know there is a nervousness to use grants to value your time and a difficult step between a We Make Camden grant and funding from the Equality Fund.  

Influencing Donors and Supporters (and potential donors and supporters) 

We believe our donors and supporters can play a significant role in overcoming racial injustice, beyond their financial contributions to Camden Giving. Therefore we will share our unique insight on local racial injustice with donors and supporters so they can use that knowledge to be better neighbours to Camden’s communities. 

We think our donors are different to other businesses and we expect them to be open to hearing difficult truths. 

We want avoid tokenistic financial support to overcoming racism. 

We want to celebrate black and ethnic minority communities and leaders. 

The Detail

In December 2020 we set-out a 5 year plan to increase Camden Giving’s potential to achieve racial justice in Camden and beyond. We’re regularly updating this page as we learn. We are grateful to so many people, organisations and networks for helping us in this work. These include, but are not limited to BRAP, our grantees, our community panellists, Camden Council and our donors who support this work.

Short term - by April 2021

We’re making sure colleagues of colour have access to additional training budgets, public facing platforms and development opportunities. As individuals and as an organisation there is much to learn and this will form part of all staff development plans. Supporting this will form part of Line Managers Appraisals. 

We’ll bring external expertise on racial justice to our community panellists and we’ll work with partners to support each community panel to develop an anti-racist strategy for their fund. 

We’ll convene our corporate supporters to create a shared understanding of the role Camden businesses can play in tackling racism. 

Medium term - by January 2022

Provide confidential spaces where staff can talk about their experiences of racism as well as clearer whistleblowing procedures internally. 

Work with community panellists for longer periods of time with more cross-over between community panels to build on work that has already been done. 

Create resources and make use of existing resources for our donors and volunteers to explain why racial justice is a priority in Camden Giving’s work. 

Long term - by 2026

Initiate an external review that will look at how our grant-making has impacted on racial justice and next steps. 

Using the information our grantees and panellists tell us, we’ll set high standards for our supporters and work with them to ensure they do not give to racial justice with one hand, whilst hurting black and ethnic minority communities with the other hand. At times this may mean rejecting donations from organisations that don’t share our ambition for an anti-racist borough. 

Updates on what we’re doing

 
 

We want to make it easier for our grantees, civil society organisations and residents in Camden to have visibility of our Whistleblowing Policy, if for any reason an individual feels it necessary to whistleblow about Camden Giving, our staff or Trustees. You can access our policy below for further information.