In late 2024, we invited grantees and applicants of JRRT, the UK Democracy Fund and JRSST-CT to share their views – anonymously – about our application processes, grant making and strategic priorities via our survey.
Chief Executive Fiona Weir introduces some of the findings of the survey in her blog below and describes our next steps in responding to the valuable insights shared.
You can also download the full survey report here
It’s hard to exaggerate how much we value the feedback and rich insights from the 110 of you who responded to our 2024 survey (59% is a good response rate!).
You told us about your organisations, what you think of us, our grant application processes, the Democracy Network, and what you think our strategic priorities should be going forward. The responses are fascinating so please do read further.
36% (46% JRRT) of respondents were non-charitable campaign groups; 32% (23% JRRT) charities. 10% said “yes” to their primary focus being racial justice; and 18.5% said that their organisation is Black or minority-ethnic led (as defined by the Funders for Race Equality Alliance).
We held our breath a bit to see what negative feedback might come through in an anonymous survey… but were delighted at how overwhelmingly positive the feedback was. Thank you! The Board and the staff team really appreciated this.
It’s important not just to publish the responses but to also tell you how we are using them to inform our work.
At the Democracy Network Summit in Sheffield in February, I highlighted the data on size of organisations by turnover – 32% of respondents have low income, less than £100k pa. 53% of respondents put “growing and diversifying income” top of the list for capacity building needs. “Working to bring other funders towards the democracy space” was your clear first choice for JRRT direct activity priorities. In the open responses, a number of grantees raised the need for multiyear funding. We are looking hard at what we can do as part of live strategy discussions.
Over half of grantees (55%) understand JRRT strategy well, UK Democracy Fund 70% and JRSST-CT 46%. We’d like this to be much higher, so we are thinking through how we communicate the new strategy in June and how we reinforce that regularly.
The application process was rated positive for speed (85%) and ease (75%). 29% of applicants reported feeling pressure to modify priorities – partly offset by 87% of grantees feeling comfortable approaching us if there is a problem. Alongside scope for improving feedback and discussions about reports, there is food for thought which the team is working through so we can improve our processes.
Finally, we have shared the responses on the Democracy Network with their staff to supplement work they are doing on the state of the sector and future role of the Network. Only 39% of respondents are members so do click here to find out more about the Democracy Network!
Both the JRRT and JRSST-CT Boards received the full survey responses ahead of strategy development sessions in York in late March. We have also reflected on research, policy, polling and citizen engagement by the sector in recent years and what we have heard from you at conferences, retreats and learning events over the last year.
This includes your input to the survey question: Can you tell us what you think our priorities should be, and why? Across the three entities there was solid support for many of the issues we have been prioritising to date. JRRT’s focus on “Open and accountable government”, JRSST-CT’s focus on “Informed and engaged citizens”, and UK Democracy Fund’s focus on “Voter participation and system reform” were each rated highly, as were two issues not included in the 2020 survey: “Trust in politics” and “Countering support for populist and extremist policies” – both of these reflecting long-term threats to democracy in the UK and the challenge of building democratic resilience.
We plan to finalise and communicate our new strategy and funding priorities before the end of June and look forward to talking to many of you about how we take this forward.
Fiona Weir
Chief Executive JRRT & JRSST-CT
Downloads
And you can also download the full text of all the open responses given to the survey for each entity using these links: