Over the past 2 months following the set up of the Trauma Informed Grantmaking Community of Practice and the lunch and learn session with the Grant Funders Network, we have been having conversations with a wide range of funders sharing learning and experience. We have been exploring with funders why they are looking to become more trauma informed, where they are in their journey, what support they need to start/continue this journey and what they would want from the community of practice. The responses and discussions we’ve had have been enlightening, uplifting and at times inspirational. The people we have spoken to are passionate, driven change makers who feel strongly that becoming trauma informed as grantmakers will not only benefit them as funding organisations but will also benefit the organisations and people they support. There is also a strong belief that becoming trauma informed is an essential component of systemic change.

Key reasons for becoming trauma informed

Many of the funders we have spoken to have a core mission to alleviate poverty and to tackle inequality and disadvantage. They are some of the countries’ most well known funders giving millions in grants to organisations and services working with some of society’s most vulnerable people. They have strong visions for fairer more equal communities and for a just and more compassionate society where people thrive not just survive. They have sought to achieve their aims by working in partnership with organisations addressing a number of issues, providing funding and other support to tackle many of society’s challenges including but not limited to organisations supporting:

• People experiencing homelessness which has increased by a massive 74% since 2010.
• Women experiencing violence and abuse, which also saw a rise of 49% in the number of calls to domestic abuse services during the pandemic.
• Children and young people living in poverty and who are growing up in adverse conditions
• Disadvantaged communities experiencing multiple disadvantages of financial hardship, mental health challenges and health inequalities.

Funders are providing this vital support not only to tackle these inequalities and hardship but they have also been delivering crucial emergency support through the COVID Pandemic and now through the cost of living crisis, with disadvantaged communities the hardest hit.

There is a huge responsibility for funders to do and be better, to ensure vital services can improve outcomes for the people needing to access those services. To increase impact and achieve core missions, funders are looking to and implementing different grantmaking approaches. Trauma Informed Grantmaking aligns with and strengthens approaches such as participatory practices, valuing the voice of lived expertise and implementing robust diversity equity and inclusion practices. Deepening understanding of trauma and the impact of traumatic experience such as homelessness, violence and abuse and poverty is essential and a cornerstone of considering how to apply a trauma lens to funders own organisations and their grantmaking.

Starting your trauma informed grantmaking journey

As grantmakers we are not delivering frontline services nor working directly with people accessing services – so what does it mean to be trauma informed? What level of awareness do funders need when considering how to apply a trauma informed approach to grantmaking? What are the tangible benefits of becoming trauma informed and how could these be measured? For organisations supporting people on the frontline the benefits and impact of this approach are measurable. There are tangible changes that can be measured when an organisation delivers trauma informed services as this example demonstrates:

Two of the core principles of trauma informed care are safety and opportunities to rebuild control. Imagine someone who has experienced trauma or is experiencing ongoing trauma such as someone accessing homelessness services: How do they feel safe? How do they feel control over what is happening to them? 

One example of two different approaches: 

Scenario 1: Ben has been using alcohol which the service he is accessing does not tolerate – a warning is issued  – the outcome = Ben has been reprimanded, disempowered and this potentially causes more harm through negative reinforcement and a lack of support to make positive changes. This becomes a revolving door scenario for Ben.

Scenario 2: Ben has been using alcohol, the service he is accessing takes a trauma informed harm reduction approach which involves building a trusting relationship with Ben, supporting him to understand the triggers leading to his alcohol use, and provides support to manage those triggers – the outcome = Ben is empowered to understand his own triggers, which provides opportunities for him to rebuild control understand the root cause rather than symptom, and through the support provided increases a sense of trust and safety which leads to a reduction in Ben’s alcohol use.

Now consider what kind of funding approach would enable and empower service providers to take the trauma informed approach instead of the warning approach? What would funders need to understand, be informed by and do to design and deliver funding that builds trauma informed capacity and practice in service delivery?

Vital role of funders

It is these very questions, and the growing awareness amongst funders that they have a vital role to play both in building trauma informed capacity in services, but also how we as funders become trauma informed organisations that led to the set up of the trauma informed grantmaking community of practice. Becoming trauma informed is a journey and this journey will look differently for funders than it does for organisations working on the frontline. Whilst there is a wealth of expertise and knowledge about trauma informed practice in the UK there is little awareness and support about how to apply this to the grantmaking context. We know from conversations with funders over the past few months there is already some great work happening, learning to share and that collectively through the community of practice we can develop the tools and support funders need to become trauma informed grantmakers.

On 26th January we will be convening a lunchtime learning session with funders to share this practice, provide space for funders to discuss some of the challenges in starting this journey and to start to develop a clearer roadmap for what this journey might look like for funders here in the UK. Grantmakers have the power through grant programmes to build capacity among organisations in trauma informed and resiliency approaches, and in so doing amplify the voices of lived experience and expertise contributing to the solutions of the issues we are addressing. To do this responsibly and to truly have impact we as funders must also go on this journey ourselves.

For more information or to get involved in the community of practice (open to all funders and commissioners) please get in touch with us.

Lisa Raftery and Kate Moralee