Learning Reflections 2025

Sharing learning is an important part of Farming the Future's work and ethos. Below we have pulled out some topline reflections from our conversations with funded partners over the past year.

1.     Building trust requires dialogue not just listening

Establishing a relational funding approach means asking people to share, whether that’s more vulnerable sharing like things that might not be going so well with the work or more general sharing about learning. While there is a stronger focus from funders on ‘listening and responding’ we need to start making this more of a dialogue. Funders need to share their own thinking and vulnerabilities in order to continue shifting out of a transactional relationship and into a more trust based, partner approach. Think about what you are sharing back with funded partners.

2.     Not everything needs to become an organisation

While the New Growth funding (£10K for early-stage organisations) was unrestricted it included a soft goal of helping early-stage organisations to develop. What is becoming clear is that not every early-stage group can or should develop into a fully-fledged organisation. There is a tension around how to bring more voices and perspectives into the wider work and movement without setting up individual organisation’s for everything that will end up competing for increasingly scarce funds. There are conversations happening within the movement about ways to support one another via mutual aid and other forms of solidarity resourcing. But there is also a recognition that without groups becoming more formalised, they will likely always be side projects for people.

3.     Funders need to support time for groups to ‘just be’

All our New Growth groups highlighted that not having ‘pressure to spend’ has been a critical component to them truly feeling like they have the time and space to think and consider rather than rush into ideas to get the funding spent. Alongside this, however many have recognised that even without external pressure to spend, they are fighting against significant internalised pressure to ‘deliver’. This also takes into account the amount of time it takes for groups attempting to hold groups/collectives together without relying too exclusively on paid coordinators and the many challenges that come with collective organising. From a process point of view it feels like 2 years is the minimum for groups to be able to reflect think and take time, rather than be rushed into constant delivery.

4.     Sometimes we might not like the outcome/s

Funding from a place of trust and building relational rather than transactional relationships with funded partners requires funders to build comfort with not always being totally happy with the outcome of a particular piece of work. This is especially important where the point of the funded work is to allow people to develop a specific approach or programme of work that isn’t known at the beginning.

5.     Go where the energy is

Rather than starting new initiatives there is a call to support what already exists and where the energy really is within a given field or movement. This can also be applied internally for groups to help them guide their activities based on where the energy is from members etc for different types of work.

6.     Capacity support needs to encompass more than just fundraising or governance

With more emphasis being put on lived experience, funders providing capacity support need to think about the support needed for front line staff and to think broadly about the different kind of emotional support needed and ways to integrate that support.