Charities and social enterprises – led by Black founders and people of colour – can now apply to receive a new grant funding of up to £3,000 to ‘socially empower’ their community-focused impact work. 

The Common Call fund is jointly set up by Do It Now Now (DINN), an open innovation organisation working to socially empower Black communities globally, and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, a charitable independent funder focused on supporting young creatives.

Black social founders can access the unrestricted monetary fund, ranging from £1k to £3k, to continue their work in creating an impact in deprived communities and supporting people affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Eligible applicants will also receive access to monthly expert-led webinars, tailor-made strategic coaching, opportunity to be a member of the Black and Good Community for one-year, and support to apply for future funding through larger social investment funds.

Commenting on the launch of the fund, Bayo Adelaja, Fund Manager, said: “When a financial crisis hits, the Black people that are sacrificing portions of their salaries and their time to increase opportunities for social mobility for other Black people are no longer able to do so. Common Call aims to socially empower Black people to actively engage in the communities in which they live and to create a positive impact on their families.

“Our goal is to make it easier for Black people with lived experience of key issues in their communities to build and sustain social enterprises and charitable organisations that solve the problems they had to fight to overcome. The beneficiaries of the organisations we fund will primarily be people that identify as Black or Mixed with Black.”

Moira Sinclair, Chief Executive, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, said: “It is clear that the effects of this pandemic are not falling equally, and this is true for organisations as much as it is for individuals. We are therefore delighted to be supporting the Common Call fund, which will support Black-led social enterprises and charities not only to survive the impact of the pandemic, but to thrive. We look forward to seeing the impact of the Common Call fund, both in communities now, and in the longer term.”

The first round of applications is open throughout August 2020 and funds will be disbursed in October 2020.

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