About the programme
Propel Long Term Grants is a seven-year funding programme supporting organisations working to address structural inequality across London.
The programme focuses on organisations led by and for the communities they serve. It recognises that lasting systems change does not happen within short funding cycles. It requires time, stability and sustained partnership.
Propel provides long-term, flexible funding designed to give organisations the confidence to plan ahead, strengthen their infrastructure and pursue change that is systemic rather than short-lived.
How Propel works
Propel operates through a pooled funding model.
City Bridge Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund are working together through Collaboration Circle to deliver a shared long-term funding programme.
Collaboration Circle hosts and manages Propel, providing governance, grant management and the learning infrastructure that enables the work to operate collectively.
By aligning resources within a single programme, Propel reduces fragmentation and creates greater coherence. Decisions are shaped collaboratively, drawing on funder expertise alongside the insight of organisations working closest to communities.
The programme is characterised by:
- £34 million total programme value
- Seven-year grant commitments
- Collective governance and shared authority
- Flexible funding designed to support adaptation
- Ongoing learning embedded throughout delivery
Shared decision-making
Propel combines long-term funding with a shared decision-making model.
Funding decisions are shaped collaboratively by funders and equity partners, bringing together grant-making expertise, lived experience and community insight. Authority sits within a Funding Committee that includes funders and equity and justice organisations as peers, with full delegated responsibility for decisions.
This approach recognises that decisions about long-term systems change benefit from multiple perspectives. By designing criteria together and sharing responsibility for outcomes, Propel seeks to build funding processes that are more grounded, transparent and collectively owned.
Why this model exists
Organisations working to address structural inequality often face persistent uncertainty. Short-term, project-based funding can make it difficult to focus on long-term strategy, organisational development and systems change.
Propel was established to move beyond fragmented funding cycles and test what long-term, collaborative investment can make possible.
By combining sustained funding with partnership and shared learning, the programme supports organisations to address root causes rather than symptoms. It recognises that meaningful change takes time, and that funders also need space to learn and adapt alongside the organisations they support.
The ambition is clear and practical: to strengthen the organisations and networks that hold communities together and reshape the systems that affect their lives.
Learning and development
Learning is built into the programme from the outset.
Throughout delivery, there are structured opportunities for funded organisations and participating funders to reflect on practice, governance, equity and power. This shared learning informs how Propel evolves and contributes to wider conversations about collaborative, long-term funding in London.
