Doing & Learning Update - March, April & May 2025
June 2025
The PDF version of Doing & Learning in March, April & May 2025 can also be downloaded here
What is Regenerative Futures Fund?
The Regenerative Futures Fund is a new ten-year £15m pooled fund for communities in Edinburgh that puts decision-making power into the hands of those who are most often excluded. This fund is designed by and for people in their own communities.
The funding will give grassroots organisations, collectives and movements the opportunity to think and plan for the long-term, tackling the root causes of poverty, racism and the environmental crisis. It supports approaches to improve the lives of people living in poverty and experiencing racism, and contribute towards a just green transition, by enabling equity, power-sharing and long-term change.
Doing & Learning Report #2 – Covering March, April & May 2025
What is the purpose of this update? We are committed to ‘working in the open’ as we develop the Regenerative Futures Fund. This is our second team update, sharing what we have been up to the past few months, what we've been learning, and a bit about how we move forward. These updates are shared with our Oversight & Enabling Board and on the Regenerative Futures Fund website. We – Aala Ross, Andy Hyde and Leah Black – have written this collaboratively, with future versions to be contributed to by the wider eco-system.
This update is structured around our seven project plans areas:
1. Fund Design — Process, Programme & Participation
Fund Design — Process, Programme
We have been:
Fine-tuning the process of the Fund in real-time, responding to the realities the Fund is facing as it relates to third-sector challenges in Edinburgh. In February, we published Guidelines + Timelines and launched the self-recommendation form. The Fund was initially planned (as set out in the operational plan) to be a closed fund, but in order to catch as many new-to-us organisations and collectives as possible, we settled on a process whereby organisations put forth a self-recommendation and check their eligibility through a simple online form. We delivered online information sessions for community organisations, about the Fund and its remit, but also on the application and funding processes. We updated the website and the online FAQ’s during March and April. The form closed April 22, and we were left with an astounding 265 'eligibility checker' submissions.
We paused, reflected, and reached out to those in our networks who had devised application processes, and discussed 1) why the submission pool was so large for a hyper-niche Fund, 2) what was missing looking at the application pool. There were a lot of organisations which were clearly not a good fit for the Fund, and we considered avenues for narrowing down the pool of applicants.
We added the 'Additional Half Step' to address 1) the number of applicants (too many for residents panel to deliberate on; many clearly not suited for the cohort model or falling in line with the Fund’s vision for Edinburgh) and 2) the fact that we didn't have any information of planned project.
It also became evident via information sessions that applying organisations were not clear on our theory of change or on intersectionality. We updated information pages on our website on our Theory of Change, Intersectionality as well as the Three Horizons approach to long-term planning and thinking.
Lastly, organisations repeatedly expressed keen interest in collaborating with other applying organisations, requesting that connections and introductions being made.
So, with this in mind, we built an additional month (initially, then extended to 6 weeks in total) in the process for organisations to submit brief project detail with responses to three short answer questions that the residents panel would be able to deliberate on. We held three collaboration sessions via Teams with breakout rooms based on Fund theme, for organisations to connect.
The capacity building start date has been moved from July to August 2025 and will run through to approx. December 2025. The reason for this move is a response to feedback from community organisations about July being both a clash with school summer holidays and a clash with organisational summer activities.
Through this we have been learning:
LOADS!
Funding scarcity has led to overwhelming interest in what we consider to be a very specific Fund.
A lot of organisations have self-selected out after intersectionality and Three Horizons tutorials and toolkits were shared, and have left positive messages which we have left in success buckets.
When steps are added into a process, even an open and clear iterative process which values and considers input from involved parties, criticisms are made. Organisations in the charity sector are not just cash-strapped, but also short on staff time, which means they value a system that is clear and simple, and rigid.
There is a huge level of interest in collaboration, especially among grassroots organisations. Based on this, we made the decision to expand the pool in capacity-building, but beyond this we are interested in building a network which would be open to all applying organisations. More to follow.
Through an initial sift, it's evident that quite a number of the projects are still unclear on what intersectionality means and what Three Horizon planning for the future looks like – and we are keen on building this up throughout the sector.
The competitive nature of funding means that we have encountered charity workers and leaders who have not been leading with respect or kindness in their engagement with us and others. With the network, and through expanding capacity-building pool, we are hoping to root future collaboration with the Fund in care, kindness and empathetic listening, and to find a route to bringing everyone along toward the collective vision.
There is a risk that Black/POC grassroots organisations might not constitute the 50% planned of funded organisations, as the current applicant pool is about 25%. We need to consult Black/POC leaders outwith the Fund on the best path forward.
Fund Design — Participation
We have been:
Onboarding and learning from the Resident's Panel. The panel currently consists of 15 Edinburgh residents with lived experience of poverty/ racism, and our first meetings began in April. So far, we have held five meetings, building rapport, a set of principles on working together with care, and a process for consensus decision-making.
Throughout our meetings, we used the Three Horizons framework, with a view to building a map of their experiences of, and hopes for, living in the city. This mirrors the application form that organisations are submitting, so that residents are able to recognise sticking-plaster vs transformational, systems change projects.
Beginning June 13, the residents panel will begin its sift of organisations, with the Three Horizons framework as the basis for decision-making.
In our last Oversight and Enabling Board we had additional input on experts to fold into the onboarding process. The residents have also been learning from each other's experiences and have crafted their own list of subject experts they would like to come in to speak, with technical experts brought in during capacity-building phase for organisations (August to December).
Continued recruitment in coming weeks to address gaps in the group, particularly East Asian, South-East Asian, Latino, Indigenous, young folks 16-25.
Beginning to ask what regenerative participation means - what seeds can be sown in our work that grow and spread beyond those funded to encourage and enable a vision for Edinburgh that benefits everyone?
Through this we have been learning:
People are passionate, experienced and ready for change!
We needn't have been wary of introducing what felt like an academic framework so early in the process - it's working well as a structure for our conversations and plans.
That our role isn't to 'teach' the group how to make a good decision, it's to create the right conditions for them to use their skills, experience and knowledge to recognise real opportunities. They already collectively know what it will take for the city to change.
People are curious about different aspects of the challenges the city faces and we have plans to bring in experts in climate impact, compassionate finance, antiracist work and more to build our skills.
2. Recruitment and Team Development
We have been:
Talking to freelance fundraisers who specialise in individuals donor development, as well as specialists in corporate partnerships to add capacity to the team, working towards our fundraising goals.
Continuing to consider how we build up the team shorter and medium term with other freelancers and contractors.
We are still looking at building freelance capacity to help with comms but just in the process of working out what we need and what comms support will support different parts of the programme and the ecosystem.
Still enjoying working as a small team of three, grateful for being able to work with and get to know our Foundation Scotland colleagues across many areas such as communications, finance, philanthropy, grantmaking and communities.
Continuing to expand our networks within Edinburgh Futures Institute and enjoying meeting new people working across sectors as well as loving being based in the Public Services Ward and spending time with colleagues.
Through this we have been learning:
That we are very lucky in our small team to have the best of all worlds with our working patterns – we are a small team of three, working within and hugely supported by a bigger organisation and experienced and generous colleagues in Foundation Scotland who work across the whole of Scotland, and having a physical base within Edinburgh Futures Institute, a beautiful building where we can run workshops, hold meetings, bond with colleagues, and meet in-person (indoors or outdoors) as a team.
3. Communications and Open Working
We have been:
Continuing to ‘Work in the Open’ as much as possible and looking forward to making sure we make time as a team for reflective practice and sharing what we are learning, and in time encouraging others to share learning through a range of different channels and methods
Regularly updating our News & Notes page with press, updates, blogs and events.
Talking to our Residents Panel about getting their ideas, reflections, creativity and voices flowing through into our communications.
Thinking about how we document the Residents Panel’s experience from their perspective, from recruitment, through onboarding to decision making and beyond.
Through this we have been learning:
That there continues to be a huge amount of interest in the model and learning from Regenerative Futures Fund in Scotland and across the UK.
That we make sure to document and consider how we share the experience of our Residents Panel as a key part of our governance eco-system.
4. Governance Ecosystem
We have been:
Sharing and refining our Governance Eco-System – current version is here.
Considering the peripheral groups of people who will feed into direction of Fund (youth, asylum seekers, etc) and how/ when we begin outreach.
Talking to the Beyond The Rules team at Dark Matter Labs about Developing a ‘Many-To-Many Agreement’ that can be signed by all who join the governance eco-system considering how we contract for collaboration.
Meeting with our Oversight & Enabling Board – Meeting #1 happened in December 2024 and Meeting #2 in March 2025. Meeting #3 will be in June 2025.
Through this we have been learning:
That our Oversight & Enabling Board like this format of Doing & Learning Report as a ‘board paper’ that we also publish this as part of working in the open.
Having our Oversight & Enabling Board meeting in March in-person was incredibly valuable – thanks to Gillian from Esmee Fairbairn who travelled a long distance to Edinburgh to be with us.
Reflecting on how we plan an agenda to allow for conversation about oversight and enabling.
About other initiatives where many-to-many agreements have been developed for governance ecosystems.
There are many other groups that over time we will want in our governance ecosystem, that like any ecosystem this will evolve over time, and a creative thought inspired by our colleagues Kristy and Urska in Edinburgh Futures Institute that our visual might be better conveyed as an animation – an exciting creative project on the horizon perhaps!
5. Fundraising and Contracting
We have been:
Finalising all contracts with our first stage and founding funders! - reminder that our target is to create a £15.3 million pooled fund and we have £5.75 million committed to the collaborative pooled fund between a group of funders plus the local authority.
Continuing to work with colleagues in Foundation Scotland and across networks in the funding, philanthropy eco-system to work towards getting closer to the overall target of which will allow us to start funding the 10-year cohort from 2026. This involves continuing work on partnerships in progress and actively seeking to develop more partnerships with funders, donors, and corporate partners interested in joining the funder collaboration.
Continuing to talk to, meet with and share information with funders and partners to encourage others to consider joining the collaborative, making the case for this type of collaboration, asking for introductions to partners with aligned values.
Through this we have been learning
That there is a huge interest in this model but that we need to keep working together to articulate to funders and donors about the generational nature of working together to move resources in this way – long-term, collaborative, preventative, tackling root causes, and across sectors and systems.
6. Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL)
We have been:
Finalising our brief to work with a Learning Partner in 2025 through a piece of work on developing our Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) framework.
Designing the Learning Space and the Monitoring and Evaluation Spaces, and as part of this engaging with radical M&E evaluators and frameworks globally, through seminars, meetings, and readings.
Through this we have been learning:
The radical nature of the Fund, and especially the here-to-learn attitude from Oversight & Enabling Board, offers a unique opportunity for us to take on super radical MEAL, rooted primarily in adaptive learning, 360/ circular evaluating. More on the Monitoring, Evaluation and Accountability in a framework this summer.
7. Field Building & Systems – Learning With Others, Learning Partnerships, Sharing the Model
We have been:
Continuing to learn from colleagues developing a new approach to funding transformation and systems change in Clackmannanshire. Andy is also working part of his week with the team in Clacks on their plans to include residents participation in decision making.
Learning with Tobias Jung and others in St Andrews at the third of three workshops called Together for Good: Crafting Scotland's philanthropic journey and conversations about a national conversation on philanthropy in Scotland.
Attending Creating The Enabling Conditions for Place-based Community Regeneration webinar with a global group of ‘wonderfully diverse group of regenerative practitioners, funders, place-base anchor institutions (councils, community organisations), landscape guardians, transition design specialists, and regenerative and social enterprises gathered to consider the findings’ we found this inspiring and very aligned with our thinking and work – this is a collaboration between Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Really Regenerative CIC and Regen Labs - here is the full report and the webinar recordings.
We met with Community Foundation Ireland to share learning about the early development stages of creating a long-term pooled fund with a focus on systemic change.
Leah and Kristy Docherty from Edinburgh Futures Institute presented at The Melting Pot Bridging Communities event about system change and collaborative leadership
Talking with our colleagues within Edinburgh Futures Institute – including Urska Ozimek and Kristy Docherty about how we deep and genuine ways of putting experts by experience at the heart of our work.
Attending a climate ready leaders dinner organised by Liz Gadd, Jo Kerr and Nick Addington – thanks to Catriona Patterson for the selfie
Attending the Scottish Parliament for the Environmental Funders Network parliamentary reception beautifully convened by Julie Christie launching the new Where The Green Grants Went Scotland – well worth a read
We have been dipping in and out of two work book groups reading Multisolving, convened by Liz Gadd and Everyday Habits for Transforming Systems convened by Keira Oliver.
Attending a fascinating event at Edinburgh Futures Institute about Relational Policymaking Roundtable – with Toby Lowe and Kristy Docherty – these events were building up towards this conference about relational policymaking
Talking on a panel at London Funders Festival of Learning - Lessons from Edinburgh’s First Pooled Fund
Continuing the conversation with Lynn Hendry and others about field building around the topic of pooled funds – which we know there is lots of interest in - and honing this into a conversation about pooling funds for long-term systemic change (more on this soon)
Andy has been invited to speak at a STEPS Collective online meet up in June to talk about Regenerative Participation. STEPS is a collection of people in different sectors who are curious about regenerative practice and how we can show the easy place to start (The STEPS Collective - 2025 Programme Intro)
Through this we have been learning:
That there is much depth and rich thinking and action around many of the themes we are discussing with our residents group, asking community organisations to think about, raising with our Oversight & Enabling Board and challenging ourselves with as a team.
We look forward to digging deeper into many of these themes with people across (and currently outwith) our eco-system and once we have our learning space established.
If anything chimes with you and you’d like to know more, please do get in touch:
Aala Ross (Co-Head) – aala@foundationscotland.org.uk
Leah Black (Co-Head) – leah@foundationscotland.org.uk
Andy Hyde (Participation Lead) – andy@foundationscotland.org.uk
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