Beyond the Cliff Edge

2. Introduction

The movement to support Black-led social enterprises and charities in London reflects a growing recognition of the systemic barriers these organisations face. The London Now Now (LNN) strategy, launched by Do it Now Now (DiNN), is a bold initiative designed to empower 30,000 Black Londoners by 2030. It focuses on capacity building, local leadership, advocacy and influencing, and community wealth—four key areas that are vital for fostering long-term, equitable opportunities and systemic change.

Understanding the Challenges: A Call for Structural Change

Black-led organisations are at the heart of social impact, working tirelessly to address inequalities and build community resilience. Yet, despite their contributions, they face persistent structural barriers:

• Funding disparities and restrictive financial models that limit long-term sustainability

• Limited access to influential networks, leaving them excluded from key decision-making spaces

• Implicit biases and tokenism, which undermine their leadership and impact

• Over-reliance on short-term, project-specific funding, creating instability and limiting strategic growth

These barriers make it difficult for Black-led organisations to plan for the future, scale their impact, and fully participate in shaping systemic solutions.

Building for the Future: Solutions That Drive Change

To dismantle these barriers, tailored funding models—including unrestricted and multi-year funding—are essential. They provide stability, allowing organisations to focus on long-term impact rather than short-term survival. Co-designing programs with Black communities ensures that solutions are culturally relevant and truly meet the needs of those they serve. Additionally, capacity-building initiatives that strengthen leadership, infrastructure, and sustainability planning empower organisations to amplify their impact and navigate systemic challenges with confidence.

The Four Pillars of Change

This literature review explores the four strands of the LNN strategy, examining how they create meaningful opportunities for Black-led organisations:

• Capacity Building – Strengthening organisations through governance, leadership development, and sustainable financial planning

• Local Leadership – Ensuring Black leaders have a seat at the table and access to training, mentorship, and decision-making power

• Advocacy and Influencing – Challenging funding disparities and ensuring Black-led organisations shape policies, not just deliver services

• Community Wealth – Creating financially sustainable organisations through multi-year funding, revenue diversification, and entrepreneurship initiatives

A Question That Drives Action

This review seeks to explore: How essential are capacity building, local leadership, advocacy and influencing, and community wealth in empowering Black-led organisations to create lasting social change?

By examining these key themes, we gain a deeper understanding of how systemic transformation can be achieved—ensuring Black-led organisations are not just included in conversations about equity, but are leading the way in shaping a more just and sustainable future.

4. Capacity Building

The need for capacity building in Black-led organisations is widely recognised as an urgent priority. These organisations are at the forefront of driving social change, addressing systemic inequities, and fostering community resilience. However, they continue to face deeply rooted structural challenges that limit their sustainability and impact. Key barriers include:

• Systemic funding inequities that create financial instability

• Limited access to influential networks that restrict opportunities

• Capacity constraints that hinder long-term planning

• Discriminatory perceptions and structural biases that exclude Black-led organisations from mainstream funding and decision-making spaces

Building a Stronger Foundation

Capacity building is not just about organisational growth—it is about empowering Black-led initiatives to lead systemic change. Research underscores the importance of:

• Governance training to strengthen institutions and leadership structures

• Financial literacy and resource allocation strategies to build economic resilience

• Skills diagnostics and action planning to develop strategic responses to challenges

• Impact measurement and advocacy to amplify voices and influence decision-making

Governance

Effective governance is a cornerstone of capacity building. Reports stress the importance of strengthening governance structures within Black-led organisations to ensure they have the institutional stability to advocate for and implement change.

“The Colour of Money" report highlights the historical role of anti-racist movements in shaping policies but warns that the lack of institutional support weakens their influence. It calls for structured organisational development to ensure long-term sustainability and strategic leadership (Khan, 2020).

Additionally, governance training must address power imbalances in funding relationships. The “Exploring Funding, Power and Participatory Grantmaking” report notes that traditional funding models prioritise funders’ risk management over community needs. By embracing participatory grant-making, organisations can reclaim power in decision-making and ensure funding aligns with their mission (Hamilton, 2024).

Financial Management

Financial resilience is key to long-term organisational success. Many Black-led organisations struggle with short-term, project-based funding that does not support their core operations. Reports stress the need for:

• Long-term financial planning to ensure sustainability

• Training in financial stewardship to equip leaders with financial literacy skills

• Multi-year, unrestricted funding models that allow organisations to plan strategically rather than reactively

The “Shared Futures" report warns that funding should not be reactive or temporary but must be embedded as a permanent investment in racial equity (Runnymede Trust, 2021). Similarly, the Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services report (2024) highlights the lack of racial diversity in support organisations, which can limit fair access to financial training and resources.

Without adequate financial management training and support, smaller Black-led organisations remain vulnerable to funding gaps and miss opportunities to scale their impact.

Equipping Organisations for Self-Assessment

Capacity building requires equipping Black-led organisations with the tools to assess their own needs and develop targeted responses to challenges. The Runnymede Trust report highlights the need for:

• Access to high-quality data to identify funding gaps and operational barriers

• Stakeholder engagement strategies to co-design effective interventions

• Strategic partnerships to strengthen self-assessment capabilities

The BAMER Hub serves as an example of how practical resources—such as bid-writing support, workshops, and grant opportunities—help organisations navigate systemic funding challenges (Runnymede Trust, 2021). Additionally, community–university partnerships provide access to academic resources that enhance the skills of Black-led organisation leaders and volunteers (Runnymede Trust, 2021).

Impact Measurement

Many Black-led organisations struggle with impact measurement due to limited resources and inadequate support from funders. However, impact measurement is crucial for securing funding, demonstrating effectiveness, and holding funders accountable.

The “How Funders Are Strengthening Nonprofit Capacity" report highlights the difficulty in attributing long-term organisational growth to specific funding interventions. Additionally, organisations often fear that impact assessments could be used against them in future funding applications (Scheid & Helé, 2022).

The “Booska Paper” calls for funders to invest in research capacity for Black-led organisations, ensuring they have the tools and expertise to effectively evaluate and showcase their impact (Armitage et al., 2021).

At the same time, funders must also be held accountable for their funding decisions. The “Delivering Better Funding for Black-Led Organisations” report urges funders to:

• Publish data on rejected applications to identify patterns of racial disparity

• Provide detailed feedback to help Black-led organisations improve their applications

• Commit to greater transparency in the funding process (Rooney & Firth, 2024)

Gaps in Capacity Building

Despite growing awareness of racial funding disparities, many Black-led organisations continue to face systemic challenges in accessing sustainable support. Key gaps include:

• Lack of unrestricted, long-term funding – Short-term, project-based grants do not provide the stability needed for organisations to grow and thrive (Shared Futures Report, Runnymede Trust, 2021).

• Power imbalances in the funding process – Traditional philanthropy reinforces bureaucratic barriers that disadvantage Black-led organisations (Lambeth and Southwark Report, 2024).

• Limited access to decision-making spaces – Many funders control the narrative and fail to recognise Black-led expertise, leading to exclusion from critical funding conversations (IVAR, 2024).

Moving Towards Sustainable Change: A Call for Action

To close these gaps, funders must shift towards long-term, unrestricted investment and decentralised decision-making models. Participatory grant-making, where communities have a direct role in funding decisions, is a powerful way to redistribute power and ensure resources align with the needs of Black-led organisations.

By strengthening governance, enhancing financial literacy, improving self-diagnostic tools, and prioritising impact measurement, Black-led organisations can build resilience and expand their influence—creating lasting change for the communities they serve.

6. Advocacy and Influencing

Advocacy and influencing are powerful tools for challenging systemic inequities, securing equitable funding, and amplifying Black-led leadership. Black-led organisations do not just provide services—they actively shape policies, influence funding practices, and push for racial justice.

The “Baobab Digging Deeper" report highlights the critical role of advocacy in empowering Black and global majority leaders, calling for tailored funding, leadership development, and organisational sustainability as essential strategies for tackling racial injustice (Wijeyesekera, 2021). However, to be truly effective, advocacy efforts must go beyond performative gestures—they require long-term investment, policy influence, and a shift in how funders engage with Black-led organisations.

Building Trust and Establishing Equitable Funding Partnerships

A major barrier to effective advocacy is the lack of trust and transparency in funding relationships. Black-led organisations continue to face:

• Funding models that channel resources through white-led institutions instead of investing directly in lived experience based Black-led initiatives

• Short-term, reactive funding that does not allow for sustainable growth

• Lack of trust from funders, resulting in excessive scrutiny and exclusion from decision-making

The “Baobab Digging Deeper” report critiques the structural biases in funding that prevent Black-led organisations from accessing the resources they need. It calls for direct investment, racial equity-focused funding strategies, and long-term, unrestricted funding commitments. Without these, many organisations remain financially precarious and unable to scale their impact (Wijeyesekera, 2021).

The “Racial Justice Audit Analysis of PHF’s UK Grant-making” underscores the role of data-driven advocacy in influencing funding practices. By applying the Funders for Race Equality Alliance (FREA) audit tool, the report reveals disparities in funding allocation for Black and Global Majority organisations compared to their white-led counterparts. It calls for:

• Long-term financial support to ensure Black-led organisations can thrive, not just survive

• Increased investment in grassroots leadership to drive systemic change

• Sustained partnerships with funders that extend beyond crisis-response initiatives (Paul Hamlyn Foundation, 2021)

These reports highlight that advocacy is not just about demanding change—it’s about equipping Black-led organisations with the data, influence, and networks they need to hold funders accountable and push for structural reform.

The Burden of Advocacy on Black Leaders

Many Black leaders find themselves juggling direct service provision, advocacy efforts, and organisational management—often without adequate support. The Locality Report highlights that the expectation for Black leaders to lead advocacy efforts while simultaneously delivering frontline services creates additional strain:

“The concern for me is the onus placed on us as BAME leaders… this is another additional responsibility placed on us and we are still expected to continue to deliver services – much-needed services.” (Locality, 2021, p.9)

Advocacy must therefore be supported structurally, not placed as an additional burden on already overextended leaders. This means funders and councils must actively invest in advocacy infrastructure—providing resources for Black-led organisations to engage in systemic change without compromising their service delivery.

Embedding Black-Led Organisations in Local Ecosystems

For Black-led organisations to effectively advocate for their communities, they must be deeply embedded in local policy and funding ecosystems. However, many Black-led initiatives remain excluded from decision-making spaces and are forced to operate on the margins.

The “Bridging the Gap in Funding for the BAME Voluntary and Community Sector” report highlights the need for Black-led organisations to be fully integrated into local governance structures, ensuring they can:

• Influence funding priorities

• Collaborate on policy development

• Secure sustainable funding that aligns with their mission (Voice4Change England, 2015)

The “Funding Black-led Micro-organisations in England” paper further explores how Black-led micro-organisations—which often face institutional racism and funding barriers—can secure resources by partnering with mid-level and mainstream charities. While this has proven effective in some cases, the report stresses that Black-led organisations must remain in control of their own advocacy efforts rather than being used as tokenistic partners in larger funding applications (Manful & Willis, 2024).

Additionally, the “Home Truths: Undoing Racism and Delivering Real Diversity in the Charity Sector” report underscores the need for:

• Leadership accountability within the voluntary sector to address racial disparities

• Stronger representation of Black-led organisations in governance structures

• A shift from performative diversity efforts to genuine inclusion in decision-making

The report warns that Black leaders must be given real decision-making authority, rather than being expected to play a tokenistic advisory role:

“BAME people asked to play a role should be given commensurate authority to make change – otherwise they are bound to fail.” (Lingayah, Wrixon, and Hulbert, 2020, p.18)

This reinforces the need for funding bodies and local councils to commit to meaningful inclusion, ensuring that Black-led organisations are at the forefront of shaping policies and funding strategies that impact their communities.

Gaps in Advocacy and Influencing

Despite increased awareness of racial funding disparities, there are critical gaps in advocacy and influencing efforts for Black-led organisations:

Lack of Long-Term, Strategic Funding

Many Black-led organisations operate on short-term, crisis-driven funding rather than strategic, long-term investment. Reports such as “Baobab Digging Deeper" and "No More Blank Pages" highlight that funding remains reactive, often focused on emergency relief rather than systemic change.

Without core, unrestricted funding, Black-led organisations struggle to:

• Build advocacy infrastructure

• Develop long-term policy influence

• Retain staff and scale their impact

Underrepresentation in Decision-Making Spaces

Despite growing conversations around racial equity, Black-led organisations remain underrepresented in governance structures and funding bodies. Reports such as the “Booska Paper” and “Funding for BAME VCOs” highlight how Black-led organisations:

• Compete against larger, predominantly white-led institutions for funding to deliver lived experience based work

• Struggle to navigate complex funding processes without the same level of institutional support

• Are often consulted for expertise but excluded from funding opportunities

For advocacy efforts to be effective, there must be a fundamental shift in power—ensuring Black-led organisations are not just consulted but given decision-making authority within funding structures.

A Call to Action: Shifting from Performative Support to Systemic Change

To close these gaps and ensure Black-led organisations can effectively advocate for their communities, funders and policymakers must commit to:

• Long-term, unrestricted funding models that enable sustained advocacy efforts

• Greater transparency in funding processes, ensuring Black-led organisations have equitable access to resources

• Increased representation of Black leaders in governance structures, giving them real influence over funding decisions

• Eliminating the over-reliance on white-led institutions, and directly funding lived experience based Black-led initiatives

Advocacy is not just about pushing for change—it’s about creating the conditions for Black-led organisations to lead systemic transformation. With the right investment, inclusion, and commitment from funders, Black-led organisations can move beyond survival and into positions of power where they drive the solutions their communities need.

8. London Now Now: A Solution

London Now Now (LNN) is a bold, city-wide initiative designed as a direct response to the systemic barriers faced by Black-led organisations in London. It is not just a programme—it is a strategic intervention that addresses the structural inequities in funding, leadership access, advocacy, and community wealth-building.

By working in collaboration with grassroots Black-led organisations, LNN ensures that solutions are not imposed from the outside but co-created with those directly impacted. The strategy is designed to:

• Strengthen organisational capacity—providing tailored governance training, financial literacy, and strategic planning support.

• Enhance local leadership—connecting Black leaders with decision-making spaces and equipping them with the tools to drive systemic change.

• Expand advocacy and influencing power—so Black-led organisations don’t just deliver services but actively shape policies and funding structures.

• Build sustainable community wealth—moving away from precarious, short-term grants toward long-term, diversified funding models.

Through these pillars, LNN lays the foundation for lasting transformation, working to bridge the gap between grassroots organisations, funders, and policymakers while ensuring Black-led organisations move beyond survival to sustained, long-term impact.

Scaling Systems Change Through Grassroots Collaboration

The power of LNN lies in its ability to scale impact through collaboration. While individual Black-led organisations have been working to challenge systemic inequalities for decades, they are often forced to do so without adequate funding, infrastructure, or decision-making power. LNN leverages the expertise and networks of these organisations to create a cohesive, city-wide movement that enhances:

• Stronger referral pathways—so Black-led organisations can work together to support service users without duplicating efforts.

•  Increased access to funding—by challenging exclusionary funding processes and advocating for unrestricted, multi-year investments.

• Greater local influence—through direct engagement with councils, funders, and policymakers to ensure Black voices shape policies and resource allocation.

While LNN is designed to create structural change, true transformation cannot happen in isolation. Funders, policymakers, and sector leaders must actively participate in dismantling the systemic barriers that continue to disadvantage Black-led organisations. This means:

• Shifting from short-term, performative funding to long-term, unrestricted investment.

• Embedding Black-led expertise in decision-making spaces to ensure policies and funding structures are truly equitable.

• Decentralising power in the funding ecosystem so that Black-led organisations have autonomy over their futures.

By embedding LNN within a wider movement for racial equity, it becomes a catalyst for change beyond just one initiative—one that enables Black-led organisations to lead on their own terms.

The Limitation: The Burden of Leading Systems Change While Delivering Services

While LNN is designed to be a comprehensive solution, it operates within a deeply flawed system that continues to place disproportionate expectations on Black-led organisations. As highlighted in the Advocacy & Influencing section, Black-led organisations are not only expected to deliver vital services but also lead systems change efforts—often without the necessary resources or support.

This dynamic creates several ongoing challenges:

• Black-led organisations must fight for funding while also challenging the inequities of the funding system itself.

• They are asked to engage in advocacy work while struggling with financial precarity.

• They are invited into discussions on racial equity but lack the stability to fully engage in long-term strategic change.

Even all-encompassing initiatives like LNN remain beholden to the limitations of the very system they seek to transform. Without fundamental shifts in funding structures, decision-making processes, and sector-wide accountability, Black-led organisations will continue to carry the burden of systemic reform while simultaneously delivering frontline services.

Acknowledging the Challenge, Strengthening the Solution

LNN recognises this imbalance and is committed to:

• Securing long-term, unrestricted funding that relieves the financial strain on Black-led organisations, enabling them to engage in advocacy without jeopardising their service delivery.

• Challenging power imbalances in the funding ecosystem by ensuring Black-led organisations are not just consulted but actively shaping funding strategies and policy frameworks.

• Building an infrastructure of support so Black-led organisations have access to networks, training, and decision-making spaces without additional burdens.

As Black-led organisations continue to navigate these challenges, the urgency of structural reform becomes even clearer. The post-COVID landscape, the increasing recognition of racial funding disparities, and the persistent gaps in policy inclusion all reinforce the need for an initiative like LNN to not only exist but to be fully resourced and supported by funders and policymakers alike.

A Roadmap for Future Expansion

While LNN is launching in London, its impact should not end there. The structural inequities that this strategy seeks to address—systemic underfunding, lack of decision-making power, and financial precarity—are not unique to this city.

By proving the effectiveness of this model in London, LNN aims to pave the way for similar frameworks to be adopted in other UK cities. With the right funding, policy backing, and strategic partnerships, this initiative has the potential to:

• Expand its reach to support Black-led organisations beyond London.

• Develop a replicable blueprint for systemic funding reform.

• Establish Black-led networks that influence national policy and funding decisions.

Through this approach, LNN becomes not just a local initiative, but a movement that can drive structural change across the UK.

10. Conclusion

This review underscores a fundamental truth: Black-led organisations are powerful agents of change, but systemic inequities continue to hinder their ability to thrive. Capacity building, local leadership, advocacy and influencing, and community wealth are not just important elements of success—they are essential in breaking down barriers and enabling Black-led social enterprises and charities to build sustainable, resilient, and impactful organisations.

The findings highlight that capacity building is more than operational efficiency—it is the foundation for Black-led organisations to navigate systemic exclusion, advocate for change, and create long-term stability. Governance training, financial management, and impact measurement are crucial tools, but they must be paired with unrestricted, long-term funding and participatory decision-making that redistributes power within the funding ecosystem. Without these shifts, Black-led organisations will continue to carry the burden of systemic failures while lacking the resources to create sustainable solutions.

Local leadership is the key to self-determination. Black-led organisations incubate leadership within their communities, equipping individuals with the skills, networks, and influence to challenge systemic inequities from within. However, exclusion from decision-making spaces remains a persistent barrier. Leadership training, peer learning, and deeper engagement with local councils are critical—but these must be met with genuine opportunities for Black leaders to influence policies, funding decisions, and governance structures. Representation alone is not enough; Black-led leadership must be embedded at every level of the social impact sector.

Advocacy and influencing efforts are vital in challenging entrenched power dynamics, yet Black-led organisations are too often expected to lead systems change while struggling for basic resources. Trust-building between funders and Black-led organisations must move beyond performative commitments—funders must actively invest in long-term partnerships, participatory grant-making, and racial equity frameworks that empower Black-led initiatives to shape funding structures. Without this shift, Black-led organisations will remain on the margins of decision-making, forced to compete for resources within systems that were never designed for them to succeed.

Community wealth creation is at the heart of financial autonomy. Black-led organisations must move beyond short-term, crisis-driven funding cycles to develop sustainable revenue models that provide long-term security. Diversifying income streams, and securing multi-year core funding are key strategies for achieving financial independence. However, these strategies are meaningless without structural reform—funding models must shift away from exclusive, opaque systems that favour large white-led institutions toward transparent, equity-driven investment strategies that prioritise Black-led solutions.

While London Now Now (LNN) is a direct response to these challenges, this review makes it clear that even the most comprehensive strategies remain constrained by the very systems they seek to change. Black-led organisations are not just expected to deliver services—they are also burdened with the responsibility of reforming the structures that continue to exclude them. This expectation is both unfair and unsustainable. True transformation requires a collective commitment from funders, policymakers, and sector leaders to dismantle exclusionary practices, redistribute power, and ensure Black-led organisations have the resources to shape their own futures.

This is a pivotal moment. The urgency of change cannot be overstated. Without systemic reform in funding models, leadership access, and financial sustainability, Black-led organisations will continue to struggle against the constraints of a system that does not work for them. But with intentional investment, power-sharing, and long-term structural change, these organisations can move beyond survival to sustained leadership—driving the kind of transformation that benefits not just Black communities, but society as a whole.

Now is the time to act. Funders, policymakers, and community leaders must go beyond statements of solidarity and commit to funding Black-led organisations equitably, embedding them in decision-making, and ensuring their long-term sustainability. The path to change is clear—the only question is whether the sector is ready to follow through.

London Now Now is not just a strategy—it is an opportunity to reshape the future. Through collective action, meaningful investment, and a willingness to challenge the status quo, we can build a social impact sector where Black-led organisations are not just included, but fully empowered to lead.

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