Funding Black-Led Organisations Must Be Transformational, Not Transactional
Hello, Bayo Adelaja, Founder and CEO of Do it Now Now here.
In the days since my opinion piece was published on Pioneer’s Post, I’ve had many conversations. Some people reached out to share their frustrations, stories of Black-led organisations that are still fighting to be seen, still struggling to secure the funding they need to thrive. Others, particularly from within the funding sector, asked the same question in different ways: What does it actually take to fund Black-led organisations well?
I want to be clear: Black-led organisations need long-term, unrestricted funding, and they need it now. This is not a debate, nor is it a radical idea. We have always known that trust-based funding is the only real way to correct the inequities that have locked Black communities out of economic power for generations. But if we are serious about making funding work for Black-led organisations, we must also recognise that it is not just about writing larger cheques, it is about ensuring those cheques are catalytic rather than destructive.
More Money Is Not the Only Answer, The Right Money Is
For too long, the conversation has been framed as a question of quantity: How much funding should Black-led organisations receive? But the more urgent question is one of quality: How is the funding structured, and does it actually set Black-led organisations up for long-term success?
Many funders believe that the solution to chronic underfunding is simply to start giving Black-led organisations large sums of money, immediately and without question. On the surface, this seems like an overdue correction to a system that has denied Black-led organisations fair access to resources. But history, and lived experience, tells us that sudden windfalls, without the right structures in place, can create as many problems as they solve.
There is a reason why so many lottery winners, professional athletes, and even large businesses struggle after receiving massive, unplanned financial gains. Money, without a long-term strategy, can overwhelm rather than empower. And when an organisation has been underfunded for years, suddenly giving it £100,000 without ensuring it has the operational infrastructure to absorb and manage that funding can set it up to fail. That is not real support. That is a trap, one that makes it easy for funders to say, “We tried, but they weren’t ready.”
The reality is that underfunded organisations are not just lacking money, they are lacking the stability that long-term investment provides. That means funding must come with the intention of strengthening organisations for the long haul, not just providing a short-lived boost.
What Transformational Funding Actually Looks Like
If we want Black-led organisations to succeed, we have to shift from transactional grantmaking to transformational investment. That means funding must do more than fill gaps, it must build resilience.
Long-Term, Unrestricted Funding, With a Plan for Stability
Unrestricted funding is a necessity, but it cannot be given without an understanding of how it will enable sustainability. That means supporting organisations to create realistic financial strategies that ensure they do not become dependent on one-time grants.
Capacity Readiness as an Investment, Not a Barrier
Black-led organisations are often told they lack “capacity” to manage large grants, yet funders rarely invest in capacity-building before expecting them to scale. A real commitment to funding equity means providing resources to build financial, operational, and strategic resilience as part of funding agreements, not as a prerequisite to accessing them.
Funding for Infrastructure, Not Just Projects
Too often, Black-led organisations are expected to prove their worth through new, innovative projects, yet are denied the resources to strengthen their core operations. If we want Black-led organisations to survive, funders must invest in staffing, leadership development, and long-term financial planning, not just flashy, short-term initiatives.
Leveraging Funding to Unlock Other Financial Opportunities
The current funding system often treats grants as an endpoint. In reality, grants should be a starting point for helping Black-led organisations secure even more investment. That means designing funding in ways that incentivise sustainability, whether that’s through matching funds, social investment partnerships, or access to blended finance opportunities.
Shifting Decision-Making Power
If funders want to create real change, they must stop hoarding decision-making power and start trusting Black-led organisations to design their own futures. That means moving towards participatory grantmaking, peer-led funding processes, and shifting control to the communities most affected by funding decisions.
This Is a Moment of Reckoning
We are at a turning point. Funders can continue to approach Black-led organisations with suspicion, short-termism, and bureaucratic hurdles, or they can finally recognise that funding equity is about power, not just money.
This is not a request for generosity, it is a demand for justice. Funding Black-led organisations well is not a nice-to-have. It is a necessity. Because when we invest in Black-led change, we are investing in solutions that serve entire communities.
The question is no longer if Black-led organisations should be funded at scale. That debate is over. The only question left is whether funders are willing to do the work to ensure that their funding is not just generous, but genuinely transformational.
Black-led organisations do not need temporary relief. We need financial sovereignty. And that will only happen if funders stop treating us as a short-term risk and start investing in us as the future.
At Do it Now Now, my team and I are doing the work, every single day, to ensure that Black people are no longer systematically sidelined or undersupported in this ecosystem. This is not optional. It is urgent.
If you’re holding the power, move it. If you’re holding the purse strings, open them. Remove the barriers. Resource the work. Fund Black-led change like the future depends on it, because it does.
The future needs us all.
