Understanding our impact
Philanthropists and companies work with HIWCF through one-off funding programmes and endowment donations to enable community groups to continue helping people facing challenging and complex lives.
We are proud to make charitable grants that support small, grassroots and community support services across Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton.
Small charities have the advantage of being embedded within their communities; they understand the complexities of the issues their clients may be facing, and are able to pivot to meet demands as they emerge.
All our funding is made under one of six ‘Impact Themes’
We aim to avoid creating an onerous level of reporting on small community groups, which is why we have developed six ‘Impact Themes’, under which all our funding is made. Everything we fund is aimed at supporting people facing Poverty & Inequality and it is known as the golden thread running through all our grant making.
Around our impact model is a carefully structured “scaffold” which maps all of our impact categories against the sustainable development goals (SDG), the index of multiple deprivation (IMD) and the Thriving Places Index (TPI).
However, we don’t expect our funded groups to articulate how their work maps against those national and international measures. Instead, to keep within a simplified framework, we ask them to select at least one of our six impact goals when they apply for funding.
Poverty & Inequality
HIWCF funds work that is important to local communities and targeted to the areas of greatest need. Projects funded under this theme aim to directly alleviate poverty and inequality.
Employability & Skills
Health & Wellbeing
We fund work that addresses this because of the ongoing benefits of improvements in mental and physical wellbeing for individuals, households and whole communities.