Specialist Legal Advice Funding - new report from 360Giving and the Access to Justice Foundation

Our new report with the Access to Justice Foundation on funding for Specialist Legal Advice Providers in England and Wales, shows the kinds of analysis that can be done with data published using the 360Giving Data Standard. 

Combined with analysis about specialist legal advice providers themselves, we’ve covered the size and scope of the sector, income sources, and key funding trends – including the relationships between and within different funder collaborations.

Headline findings show:

• There has been a significant decline in legal aid funding for the specialist legal advice providers in the cohort of organisations analysed 

• Income growth has stalled for the majority of charities and law centres, in many cases not even keeping up with inflation

• The relationships between funders and between different funder collaborations is becoming increasingly important

In our blog we’ve also shared what we have learnt along the way about the methodology and what’s next from 360Giving and the Access to Justice Foundation. 

And don’t forget to check out the piece we co-wrote for the Funders Collaborative Hub with the Access to Justice Foundation, which explores why sharing grants data helps funders to collaborate with each other.

Read our Specialist Legal Advice Providers analysis in full

Grants to Individuals project (and consultation)

Up until now, the majority of grants published by grantmakers using the 360Giving Data Standard have been to organisations. However, we have always intended for 360Giving’s work to be flexible and respond to the needs of both grantmakers and the communities they serve. 

With the cost of living crisis escalating and more funders looking at support for individuals and families in their future funding strategies, we’ve been working with the Association of Charitable Organisations to include open data on grants to individuals in our Data Standard. We know that facilitating the responsible sharing of information on grants to individuals is becoming increasingly important to understand the wider UK grantmaking picture. 

Therefore, we are now seeking wider feedback from funders who give grants to individuals on two new proposed categories, to ensure they work for the broadest range of funders. These classifications will enable funders to describe their grants to individuals in a standardised way, so that they can be analysed together. We have written a blog sharing in more depth our plans for this project and its importance for the funding sector. 

Please share your views with us in our consultation survey by 9th September. 

Find out more about the project and the consultation in our blog

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