Following careful and detailed consideration, the Rayne Foundation is replacing its rolling, open grants programme with regular, targeted and time-limited calls in its priority areas. This change is part of the Foundation’s continued evolution and reflects our efforts to focus our funding where we can have the most impact.  

Since the Foundation launched its proactive and strategic approach in 2024, we have run two targeted calls for applications for Better Careers for Better Care. Late last year, our sister charity, The Rayne Trust, also ran a funding round for Where People Meet. In each case, these focused calls have resulted in high quality applications, all of which have provided us with a much richer understanding of the topics from a variety of perspectives.  

Over the same period, the number of applications received through our rolling, open programme has nearly doubled, with a significant proportion falling outside of our priority areas. We recognise the time and effort involved in preparing Expressions of Interest and aim to avoid applicants investing that effort where the likelihood of success is limited. 

Replacing the current open programme with targeted, time-limited calls for applications in our priority areas will help address this issue and enable us to bring in stronger lived and learned experience into our planning and decision-making – as we have done with our Better Careers for Better Care Assessment Panel. It will strengthen the potential for wider impact, enabling cohorts of grantees to build their collective voice and understanding, alongside shared evaluation – Where People Meet and Better Careers for Better Care are supported by Communities of Practice and a learning partner. This way of working also enables us to develop a better understanding of current pressures within our priority areas, of the charities and partnerships working in the field, and how we can best support them.  This knowledge will also help inform future funding rounds. 

While a very small number of grants may be made outside of the targeted open call, these will be limited to pieces of work which complement and/or underpin the core programmes. 

Next steps 

• Friday 10th July: the open, rolling programme will close and our online Expression of Interest form will no longer be available.  

• July and August: the grants team will remain open to conversations with you if you have already begun developing your application. You might be invited to apply, either then or at a later date, if the grants team sees a strong alignment with our other work. We are currently considering how best to enable organisations doing important work in our priority areas to make us aware of this, even in cases where funding will not be possible.  

• We have set up a mailing list so that you can register your interest in future funding rounds. Sign up here.

• We will aim to share more detail on the themes of our forthcoming funding rounds in the autumn. 

• The decision to change the way that applications are received will be reviewed on an ongoing basis, with the potential for a rolling, open system to be revisited in the future. 

Please note that while we remain open to applications for the next few weeks (and to conversations thereafter) so that we can remain sighted on high-quality work in areas we may not yet be aware of, we are not actively encouraging applications at this time.   

We are delighted to announce our partnership with The Young Foundation as our learning partner on the ‘Where People Meet’ programme.

The Young Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation driving community research and social innovation. It brings communities, organisations, and policymakers together, shaping a fairer future through collective action to improve people’s lives. They are a learning and capacity building partner with significant experience demonstrating the value of community-led social infrastructure.

The Young Foundation will convene the community of practice for organisations receiving grants through the programme. This network is designed to build strong relationships between the funded partners, share learning and challenges, and identify opportunities for collective impact. Drawing together insights and evidence from across the programme, The Young Foundation will highlight the essential role of community spaces leading change across the UK. We will use this evidence to join with others in influencing policy, philanthropy, and public understanding, helping to secure long-term investment in community spaces and social infrastructure.

We are excited to be convening the first community of practice in early July, bringing all of the funded partners together to lay the foundations for collaborative learning and collective impact over the coming months.

‘A key objective for our ‘Where People Meet’ programme is to learn together and to make the case for new and greater investment in community spaces.  The Young Foundation, working with our brilliant funded partners, will bring the expertise we need to evaluate our work and pull out the evidence which will support that goal.’

Crispin Truman – Director of the Rayne Trust

“I am delighted that The Young Foundation is working with the Rayne Trust, an organisation that shares many of our values by centring collaboration and creativity in work that celebrates the power of community leadership. Coming together with a diverse range of funded partners for the next two years for the Where People Meet programme, we look forward building a robust body of evidence on the value of community spaces in neighbourhoods across the UK. At this critical moment, Rayne continue to be ahead of the curve, providing a vital opportunity to better-understand capacity-building needs and learn from holistic local responses to complex social challenges. I am incredibly proud to announce this partnership, which I believe has huge potential to supporting meaningful, lasting change.”

Dr Sue Griffiths, CEO, The Young Foundation (pictured)

In this blog, Rachel Henry our Project Officer for ‘Where People Meet’, shares an overview of the grants programme and reflects on her experiences visiting the inspiring projects we’re supporting.

Where People Meet is a two-year grants programme supporting community spaces across the UK that demonstrate exceptional vision, strong local leadership, and the potential to have influence beyond their local area. Through this programme, we at the Rayne Trust aim to showcase the immense value of community centres and attract greater investment in community spaces nationwide.

In March 2026, we allocated the remainder of our £2 million designated grants pot to 18 organisations, including two pathfinder grants approved in 2025. The projects we are funding span community-led neighbourhood health approaches, community asset development, social action and community power, and capacity and network building to strengthen different types of social infrastructure. Collectively, they reflect the energy, creativity, and resilience of communities driving change across the country and offer rich learning from across the cohort. We will announce the full list of projects in early April.

The most rewarding part of the process for me was visiting the projects before taking them to the Trust’s board for approval. I travelled the length and breadth of the UK and met a wide range of inspiring, warm and generous people. What stayed with me was the deep sense of responsibility they feel for the legacy they leave in their communities, and their long-standing commitment to the places they call home.

The organisations we are supporting embody a “community instinct,” a term thoughtfully captured by Kinship Works in their evaluation of Big Local, Rewilding Civic Life. It describes the way communities respond to complex social challenges in ways that are holistic, relational, resourceful and preventative – qualities that formal systems often struggle to achieve.

You can feel it the moment you walk into these spaces. They feel alive, welcoming, and full of thought and care. Sofas are donated and lovingly upcycled, walls are covered with paintings, and people are greeted as people, not as problems to be solved or interruptions to a busy day behind a desk. They hold the space and create the conditions for people to make friends, get support they need, set up their own projects, help with other people’s projects, make decisions about what happens there and feel part of their community.

I’m looking forward to working alongside these organisations – there is so much to share, so much to learn and so much to be inspired by.  But one thing we already know: these spaces are vital, and they deserve far greater recognition, support, and long-term investment so that people can continue to have quality places to meet.

We are delighted to launch our second open call for Expressions of Interest as part of the Better Careers for Better Care programme.

Responding to our learning from the programme so far, the open call will focus on funding partnership proposals that enable and embed cultures of trust, respect and collaboration in adult social care in order to create sustainable professional development opportunities for care workers.

We believe that by continuing to invest in care workers and enabling collaborative working in a complex and often fragmented sector, we will contribute to a social care system that connects people with the lives they want and holds communities together. This investment benefits us all.

The deadline for Expressions of Interest is 12 noon Tuesday 7th April. ​

We will hold two information webinars before the deadline on:

• Wednesday 18 March, 11am-12pm – click here to register
• Monday 23 March, 3.30-4.30pm – click here to register

For full application and assessment information, please visit this webpage.

The Rayne Foundation is retendering for an IT support service to ensure that our IT effectively supports our role as a pro-active and strategic funder with an open grantmaking process.

We are inviting tenders for an IT managed service contract of 3 years.

The deadline is the 31st of March 2026. Submissions should be made electronically to ngaliara@raynefoundation.org.uk. For full details please read the Invitation to Tender document here.