Sally Downs Consulting led our evaluation of the Fair Share initiative. The evaluation began in 2003 and ended in 2009 (although the Fair Share Trust runs until 2013).
The evaluation has looked at the two main Fair Share programmes: the former Community Fund's open grants programme and support work in Fair Share areas, and the Fair Share Trust, which is managed by UK Community Foundations, formerly the Community Foundation Network.
The longer timescale and innovative approach of the Fair Share Trust meant that the evaluators increasingly focused on that part of the initiative. The evaluation has highlighted some of the very real challenges involved in introducing new approaches to grant-making. This is important because many of the ideas and approaches used -- and the complexities of getting a programme like this up and running -- reflect wider public discussion of ideas like 'community engagement', 'community empowerment', 'Big Society' or 'localism'.
The Fair Share Trust responds to concerns that communities were missing out on funding because residents were not skilled or confident in identifying needs and coming up with ideas to meet them -- or at least not in a way that would win funding from the Lottery and other sources. The evaluation also gives examples of how individuals and communities are turning that situation around.
Earlier stages of the evaluation also discuss the Community Fund's open grants programme, which prioritised funding to applicants from Fair Share areas and supported applicants to develop funding proposals -- and so to learn from the practical experience of running a project. This approach responded more directly to early concerns that comparatively little Lottery funding was going into areas that became Fair Share areas.
Please contact us if you would like to know more about the evaluation.
Reports
The first report focuses mainly on the background to Fair Share and the Community Fund's open funding programme.
The second report highlights how the Fair Share Trust was set up and how it operates in local neigbourhoods.
The final report looks back at the experience of the Fair Share Trust over its first five years.
UK Community Foundations began an evaluation of the impact of the Fair Share Trust in late 2012