LCR was the London charitable funding community’s collective response to the needs of local community organisations for additional financial assistance at their time of greatest need. In all, 67 funds contributed to the initiative, which distributed more than £57m in almost 3,500 grants through a simple, collective application mechanism – aimed at reducing the administrative burden on frontline organisations at the time of greatest pressure. We were amazed to see the way that groups adapted or made wholesale changes to their activities, both to comply with lockdown regulations and ensure that people did not go hungry, kept some social contact (even if virtually) and maintained their mental and physical well-being.
Because of the pandemic, WNST’s income was, unfortunately, greatly curtailed at the time of greatest need. However, in the early rounds of LCR funding, we dipped into our reserves to make a small handful of grants, both in LB Brent and around the London sports community, worth collectively around £54,000. But we know that these were very well received and made a real impact on the lives of people supported by the projects we funded. Additionally though, we contributed, perhaps more significantly, by releasing our experienced CEO to work on the operation and implementation of the whole LCR initiative (whilst WNST activities were on pause).
