Opinion: ‘Funders, treat Black-led organisations fairly or accept responsibility for our erasure’
Black-led social enterprises and charities are in crisis, and Bayo Adelaja is tired of watching it happen. Time and time again, these organisations are given only crumbs by UK social investors and other funders. The answer, she says, isn’t more mentorship or roundtables, but those with power taking action now.
I am exhausted. Not by the work I do, but by the sheer predictability of it all.
For years, I’ve been leading Do it Now Now, fighting for Black-led social enterprises and charities in the UK to receive the investment they need from social investors, trusts and foundations, and local, regional and national funding bodies. I’ve sat in meeting after meeting, explaining, again and again, why Black-led organisations are not just worthy of funding, but essential to the social fabric of our country. I’ve written reports, provided the data, and laid out the solutions in black and white. And yet, here we are.
Black-led organisations are still in crisis. Over 70% of them have less than six months of financial reserves. Many are on the verge of collapse. This isn’t because they lack impact or expertise, it’s because they are stuck in a system that was not designed for them to succeed.
I see it every day. A Black-led mental health charity doing groundbreaking work but unable to secure core funding. A Black social enterprise that’s tackling unemployment in our communities but being told it lacks the “capacity” to manage large grants when the system itself has caused that reality. Time and time again, these organisations are given crumbs while their counterparts, doing similar or even less impactful work, receive full-course meals.
This is the reality our reports, Beyond the Cliff Edge and Resilience in Motion, lay bare. The system is not failing by accident, it is operating exactly as designed. It was built to preserve the concentration of wealth and decision-making power in the hands of those who have always controlled it; funders, policymakers, and institutions shaped by generational wealth that, in many cases, can be traced directly back to colonialism and the profits of slavery.
The system is not failing by accident, it is operating exactly as designed. It was built to preserve the concentration of wealth and decision-making power in the hands of those who have always controlled it
The exclusion of Black communities from economic security is not new; it is the direct consequence of a history in which Black labour was exploited to build wealth that we have been systematically denied access to. Today, that same system ensures that Black-led organisations remain in a constant state of financial precarity, while the institutions that benefited from our exploitation continue to dictate the terms of our survival. This isn’t an oversight; it’s the legacy of an economic model designed to sustain power imbalances rather than correct them.
The funding game is rigged
The funding model that Black-led organisations have to navigate is, quite simply, unjust. The organisations I work with are expected to do more with less, forced to jump through endless bureaucratic hoops just to access basic resources.
The Resilience in Motion report found that many Black-led organisations struggle with succession planning, not because they don’t want to prepare for the future, but because they’re too busy fighting to survive in the present. When you don’t know if you’ll have enough money to keep the lights on in three months, long-term strategy is a luxury.
We are also forced into short-term, project-based funding cycles that keep us in a perpetual state of financial instability. Funders want to see “innovation”, “scalability” and “sustainability”, yet they refuse to provide the very thing that would enable us to achieve those goals: unrestricted, long-term investment.
We carry the weight of our communities’ needs while navigating a system designed to exhaust us
Black-led organisations are not struggling because of a lack of ability. We are struggling because we are not trusted. Funders scrutinise us more. They demand more paperwork. They question our leadership. The result? We are forced to spend unreasonable hours justifying our existence, writing and rewriting applications, meeting excessive reporting demands – on top of actually doing the work we are here to do. The emotional and physical toll of this constant need to prove ourselves is immense. We carry the weight of our communities’ needs while navigating a system designed to exhaust us. The impact is not just operational; it affects our mental health, our capacity to innovate, and our ability to sustain the very work that funders claim to value.
And while we are not blind to the challenges we face, we identify them clearly in our Resilience in Motion report, it is important to name the root cause: chronic underfunding. The system creates these barriers, then chastises us for struggling against them. It denies us the resources we need to develop infrastructure, retain staff and build financial security, then turns around and blames us for not having the same operational resilience as well-funded, white-led organisations. We are expected to meet impossible standards while being denied the very tools that would allow us to do so. This isn’t just hypocrisy, it’s an extension of the same structural inequities that have kept Black communities locked out of economic power for generations.
This is about power, not just money
Money is important, but what’s really at stake here is power. The power to decide where funding goes, who gets to run organisations, whose voices shape policy, and ultimately, who gets to create lasting change.
Right now, Black leaders are still being left out of the rooms where funding decisions are made. That’s why the same inequities persist, year after year. Funders sit on millions, sometimes billions, of pounds, while Black-led organisations are left scrambling for scraps.
This is not because we don’t have solutions. It’s because too many people in power don’t want to give up control.
And let me be clear: we don’t need saviours. We don’t need “mentorship” from people who don’t understand or share our lived experiences. We don’t need more diversity panels, roundtables, or listening sessions where we are asked to explain, yet again, what we have already spelled out in countless reports, meetings and conversations.
We don’t need saviours. We don’t need “mentorship” from people who don’t understand or share our lived experiences
What we need is the money. We need the resources. And we need the power to decide how they are used, on our terms, in ways that ensure long-term sustainability rather than setting us up to fail. Because the reality is, those who have lived and shared our experiences are already leading the solutions. We don’t need outsiders to validate what we already know works, nor do we need temporary, one-off grants that offer a short-lived boost before leaving us stranded again. Proper funding means multi-year investment, core funding, and the removal of unnecessary bureaucratic barriers that keep us in survival mode. Black-led organisations are already doing the work, despite being systemically underfunded and structurally excluded.
What needs to happen now?
The solutions are right in front of us, and they are not radical.
- Long-term, unrestricted funding Black-led organisations need financial stability, not short-term fixes. Stop giving us temporary grants that keep us in survival mode.
- Participatory grantmaking Funding should be shaped by the people it’s meant to support. Stop designing funding strategies without Black-led organisations at the table.
- Equitable access to leadership Black people are leaders, innovators and experts across every sector, from arts and heritage to conservation and technology. Stop sidelining us while others make decisions about our futures – our voices must shape the spaces we work in.
- Trust-based funding If funders can give multi-million-pound grants to other organisations with minimal oversight, they can do the same for us. Stop treating Black-led organisations like a risk and start funding us like the changemakers we are.
The truth is, we should not have to make these demands. The system should have changed years ago. And yet, here I am, writing this, knowing that despite all the reports, all the data, and all the conversations we’ve had, the people with power will still hesitate to act.
So I will say this plainly: funders, if you do not start treating Black-led organisations with the same respect, trust and investment that other organisations receive, you are actively choosing to uphold inequality.
There is no neutral position here. Neutrality does not exist in a system built on exclusion. Every decision to underfund, every additional hoop to jump through, every short-term grant with no follow-up is a conscious choice to maintain the status quo, one that keeps Black-led organisations in a state of precarity.
Either you fund us fairly, or you accept responsibility for our erasure. Because silence is complicity, and inaction is a decision.
And let’s be clear: if Black-led organisations are pushed off the cliff edge, we will not be the only ones who fall. The communities we serve will suffer, the gaps in vital services will widen, and the social impact sector as a whole will be weaker for it. A funding system that refuses to adequately invest in people with lived experience of the social issues it claims to address is not just broken, it is dangerous.
Bayo Adelaja is the founder and CEO of Do it Now Now, dedicated to empowering Black-led charities, social enterprises, and entrepreneurs in the UK
Header image: Black lived experience leaders at a Do it Now Now event focused on improving food ecosystems
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