Why place?

Our place-based funding philosophy and experience

In the first blog in an upcoming series, The Rank Foundation’s Deputy Chief Executive, Caroline Broadhurst shares their place-based funding journey.

People often ask me about the value of working, and funding, a specific place. Be it a town, city, or region.  

At The Rank Foundation, we’ve learned a lot about place-based programmes over the last two decades and, mindful that every place is one of a kind, we can draw on our experience to share why we think place-based investment is most definitely worth it.

How it started

The Rank Foundation’s place-based journey began in the north of England. In 2001, the East Lancashire Mill town Burnley, saw interracial violence erupt, causing an estimated £1 million worth of damage. Working alongside the police, we funded a cluster of community initiatives, and it showed us the potential of concentrating time, knowledge and funding in a place. 

Since then, our typical entry into an area has taken a more optimistic and opportunistic stance. Burnley gave us the confidence to approach leaders in small cities to explore where we could add value to collective aspirations and ambitions for the future.

Today, we’re invested in three cities: Hull, Dundee and Plymouth with a fourth on the horizon.

Our place-based funding starts with an open mind and a curious outlook:  

• What is good about the place?  
• What do the residents love about it?  
• How can perceived challenges be overcome, opportunities identified, and aspirations achieved?
• Who’s doing great work already? 

We take the time to get to know a place, not from a distant desk, but by visiting regularly, over an extended period of time.  We call this approach (metaphorically) “kicking the tyres” but it’s not about ticking boxes and finding our favoured characteristics before committing.

Our tyre kicking involves, meeting with community leaders, influencers, disrupters, and social entrepreneurs, who share a vision to create a better, more inclusive place to live and work.  And then we ask them if we can help to shape that vision, from concept to reality. 

How do we decide to work in a place?  

From the extended period of reconnaissance, getting to know the movers and shakers, we work in places that are ‘riding the crest of a wave’.  Of course, this is more art than science but our experience in Hull, Dundee, and Plymouth demonstrates that the heady mix of shared optimism, economic opportunity, a caring community, and a can-do approach, prepares the ground for a fruitful collaboration between philanthropy, the economy and society.

While the reconnaissance period is critical to identifying the place, our real work starts once the funding is approved.  In addition to financial resources, we convene local partners, encourage collaboration, connect with other funders and supporters, enable local leadership and decision-making. Through the lynchpin of the place-based associate director, we stay local throughout the programme, spotting opportunities to ensure that the whole is much, much greater than the sum of its parts.

Like all good things, each place-based programme has a beginning, middle and an end.  At the beginning, we work with local leaders across sectors to agree a way of working, such as the HEY 100 in Hull, Food Insecurity Network in Dundee, the Plymouth RISE programme or Participatory Grant Making.  

We recruit an associate director, who works alongside the community to identify their ‘north star’: a shared destination and how to get there. 

By the middle phase, each programme has evolved with its own identity and with participants who own, adapt and mould it.  And by the end there is a vibrant, confident, and strong network of individuals and organisations who carry on the work, and their shared vision to make their place an ever better one, for everyone.

We continue to learn, and share, about what works in place.  But we are not alone!  For decades there have been place-based funders including community foundations and place-based giving schemes. More recently, interest has increased from national funders.  Collectively, we are supported by learning organisations like Place Matters and we use different tools and techniques to measure progress and impact, such as Upshot.  

Working in place takes time. Funders with a curiosity about the process of social change, the privilege of patience to invest over time, and the resources to share with or give to others, should consider this way of doing business. 

I’ll share more soon about what we’re learning from our place-based funding in Plymouth.

Get in touch

If you’d like to discuss the ideas in this blog, please contact us at: contactus@rankfoundation.com