“The mess we are living in is a deliberate one. If it was created by people, it can be dismantled by people, and it can be rebuilt in a way that serves all, rather than a selfish, hoarding few.“ Renni Eddo-Lodge.
About Edge Fund.
Edge Fund was founded in 2012 as a participatory grantmaking fund, built from the ground up by activists and funders, many of whom have experience in both roles. Edge Fund is a non-hierarchical membership organisation, not a foundation. All of our grantees become members and have the opportunity to take part in deciding who we fund and how we operate. We have a Core Working Group, two Regional Officers, a Finance and Crowdfunding Officer, as well as a revolving group of 20+ grantee-member scorers and other working groups.
We believe in self-determination—the right of people to shape their own lives and futures, which also applies to how funding should be distributed. Just as community organising and development should involve those directly impacted by decisions, so should funding. We challenge conventional philanthropy, prioritising lived experience and making resources more accessible to those who need them most and are at the forefront of the struggles driving change in society.
Who We Fund and Why Your Support Matters Now?
“Edge Fund's grant helped us secure another year for our most basic of campaign tools - our website registration, hosting, paying for child care to help key members organise online working groups, and more.” -Grantee-member.
For over a decade, we have identified and supported more than 500 grassroots movements and activist collectives, such as Bristol Sex Workers Collective, Demilitarise Lancaster, the Filipino Domestic Workers Association UK, Cradle Community, and hundreds more. Groups doing the work of sowing the seeds for another world altogether. We particularly look for groups based in the UK that are run by and for migrants, queer and gender variant, disabled, working class and people of the global majority.
Our current political landscape continues to put profits over people and the planet—a sentiment rippling further into the funding and philanthropy sector. Since the beginning of the current genocide in Gaza, several funding bodies and organisations in the UK have altered their guidelines to discourage activist and political activity. What does this mean for grassroots groups and activist collectives for whom the personal is the political and their very existence is politicised?
Empowering Resistance: Radical Funding for Grassroots Movements Against Islamophobia and Colonial Violence.
“Thank you for the ease of being able to apply for small grants to small groups like ours. The money made it easier for us to document our journey on our website. And that journey led to this! Our legal challenge against Horse Hill resulted in a historic Supreme Court ruling that could halt future fossil fuel projects across the UK.”-Weald Action Group, Grantee-member.
Like many of you, at Edge we were outraged by the levels of Afriphobic and Islamophobic hate and violence spread in the summer riots of 2024. As a participatory grantmaking fund we want to support the work of independent grassroots groups already doing the work of protecting and empowering their communities.
In December 2023, we allocated emergency funds for Palestinian led and centred groups in the UK. The groups became grantee-members of Edge who shared vital knowledge of the ways in which we can guide our principals to better show up for and support the Palestinian struggle.
This work underscored the urgent need for Edge to establish a dedicated radical funding round specifically for groups opposing Islamophobia and colonial violence in the UK. Through our participatory membership model, we want to fund groups at the forefront of the struggle for justice and liberation. These groups invite us to reimagine a better world for all, and expand our knowledge and understanding of how to show up for these struggles.
We're raising £50,000 to deliver this Root Funding Round. Your support will allow us to:
- Grant £1000 to 40 independent grassroots groups and activist collectives opposing islamophobia and colonial violence in the UK.
- Ensure the work process is accessible and inclusive for all Edge members.
- Recruit, prepare and resource Edge members with lived experience to score the Root Funding Round applications.
- Hold a hybrid in-person and online Radical Sharing Forum; a space for Edge members (current and past grantees) to meet up, share their work, organising strategies, problems, aims and achievements. The Radical Sharing Forum is a space for building solidarity among radical grassroots organisers, aimed to cultivate networks of support and collaboration, as all struggles are interconnected.
- Create a free resource guide from knowledge shared and produced through the Radical Sharing Forum for grassroots groups and activist collectives in the UK.
Your support can make this vital work a reality. By contributing to our radical Root Funding Round, you join a movement resisting systemic neglect, erasure and attack. Together, we challenge colonial violence and empower our communities forward.
“We were able to afford to pay for the rent of an office space in Work For Change, a cooperative in Hulme, Manchester. This is a great fit for us and has led to some great collaborations with our fellow cooperative members “ - CHARM Grantee-Member
Read more about our work here.
If you are in solidarity with our aims and values, we invite you to become a regular funder.
Glossary:
Islamophobia: irrational fear of, hostility towards, or prejudice against the religion of Islam and/or Muslims in General. A state sanctioned form of racism.
Afriphobia: is specifically racism against Afrikan People. It refers to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards Afrikan people globally. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the implication of antipathy, contempt and aversion. It is apparent in acts of discrimination and racist violence on the basis of a person’s skin colour, racial/ethnic origin, and nationality. Afriphobia is discrimination on grounds that seek to dehumanise a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood, this includes Afriphobic hate crimes through verbal abuse, degrading language and physical violence against Afrikan people.
*Spelling Afrika with a ‘K’ represents a non-European, Afrikan-centred perspective, symbolising the reclamation of a unified Afrikan identity and people worldwide.
Global Majority: refers to people who are Black, Asian, dual-heritage, indigenous to the Global South, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities'. Globally, these groups approximately represent 80% of the world's population.
Radical: of, relating to, or proceeding from a root.