Locked Out of the Purse Strings

Across the UK, Black women are founding charities at the sharpest edges of social need.

We are responding to domestic abuse, safeguarding young people, mental health crises, food poverty and community violence often in places the state and mainstream institutions have long retreated from.

Yet when it comes to funding, Black women led charities remain structurally sidelined, chronically under resourced and routinely asked to do more with less. This is not about a lack of impact. It is about how money flows.

Research commissioned by the Ubele Initiative found that Black and minoritised charities receive a fraction of the UK’s total grant funding.

In some years the figure has been estimated at around 0.2 percent. Let that sink in. While Black communities experience disproportionate levels of poverty, exclusion and state intervention, the organisations rooted in those communities are expected to survive on crumbs.

The picture becomes even starker when Black women are at the helm. Despite the explosion of rhetoric around equity, diversity and inclusion since 2020, very little of that language has translated into meaningful funding for Black female founders. Instead, we see a familiar pattern repeated across sectors.

Large national charities secure multi million pound grants. A significant proportion of that funding is allocated to central administration, management fees and infrastructure costs.

Meanwhile, the smaller grassroots organisations actually delivering the programmes on the ground are subcontracted to deliver outcomes for a fraction of the cost.

This is not partnership. It is extraction. Data from the Charity Commission shows that the UK charity sector is highly concentrated. A small number of large charities control a disproportionate share of income and assets.

These organisations are often better resourced to navigate complex application processes, employ bid writers and meet restrictive compliance requirements. Grassroots charities led by Black women, many operating with one or two paid staff or entirely volunteer led, are effectively locked out before they even begin.

Funders often justify this imbalance by citing risk, governance or capacity. Yet this logic collapses under scrutiny. Black women led charities are already managing risk every day. We are safeguarding vulnerable people, mediating crises and filling gaps left by statutory services.

What we lack is not competence but capital. Even when funding does reach Black women led organisations, it is frequently short term, tightly restricted and project based.

Rarely does it cover core costs. Rarely does it support leadership development, organisational growth or long term sustainability.

According to sector analysis by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, underinvestment in core funding is one of the primary reasons small charities struggle to scale or sustain their impact.

For Black women led charities, this underinvestment is systemic. The contradiction is glaring. Funders demand collaboration, lived experience and community trust. Black women founders bring all three in abundance.

Yet the financial model rewards distance from the community rather than proximity to it. Those closest to the problems are kept furthest from the purse strings. This funding architecture also distorts accountability.

When large charities hold the grants and smaller ones deliver the work, power flows upwards while risk flows downwards. If a programme struggles, it is the grassroots partner that absorbs the reputational and operational damage, often without the reserves to recover.

This is not sustainable and it is not just. There are solutions. Funders must commit to ringfenced funding for Black women led charities with grants that cover core costs as well as programmes. Application processes must be simplified and assessed with cultural competence.

Due diligence should be proportionate, not punitive. Most importantly, funders must stop using large charities as financial gatekeepers to communities they do not lead and do not represent.

The UK charity sector prides itself on fairness, innovation and social justice. Yet until Black women led charities are funded equitably, those values ring hollow.

We are not asking for charity. We are asking for a redistribution of trust, resources and power. Because the truth is simple. Black women are already doing the work. It is time the funding caught up.