Sensemaking — what we are hearing and seeing in week 2

Last week we hosted our second sensemaking network, a group of 30 National Lottery Community Fund staff, along with two of our young people’s advisory board came together to spend some time reflecting on what we are hearing and seeing in the communities we serve. Although we are still getting to grips with the process the conversation flowed as people started to get the hang of the Three Horizons Framework we are using. During the session we discussed horizon one — the present concerns, horizon 2 — the innovation that is starting to emerge and horizon 3 — what might emerge as an ideal system.

We’ve found that examples of people’s present concerns come thick and fast. This week’s echo much of lasts around access to food, access to digital provisions, inequality and care home deaths. We have noticed there are some newer concerns arising such as increased needs as lockdown is lifted, the unemployment and recession to follow and the lasting mental health impacts as people begin to look towards the transition out of lockdown. For funders we are hearing concerns and frustrations that what was once seen as financial resilience of charities (e.g. shops, fundraising events, renting meeting rooms) has now put these organisations in much more precarious positions; that different funder approaches will impact projects funded through a range of foundations (‘the funder jigsaw’); that there is a concern that funders are running out of money and that we are focusing on the short term responses with little planning or budgets for what is to happen after this six month period.

Our conversation around the innovation that is staring to emerge (horizon 2) saw a shift towards people thinking about and planning for the future, particularly what methodologies people are using to do this. There were also conversations about technology being a gateway to participation and the opportunity to get people learning skills (from video calls to sourdough baking). We also noticed the change in the way that communications are being delivered in more honest, humble, transparent and often hopeful ways as people move to telling stories, saying thank you and updating people on what they are doing.

Looking towards what a new/ideal system could be (horizon 3) has provided some really interesting areas of focus including:

• Wealth redistribution with those who have made money from the crisis funding the recovery through tax.
• Re-imagining schools so that mental health, outdoor adventure and the arts are centred.
• Better climate responses both individually, with less food waste, growing your own food, a move away from consumerism and, on a society level, through re-imagining public space and the opportunity to increase cycle provisions and reduce air pollution.
• Increase in devolved decision making to increase community resilience and community power with a more equitable relationship between the charity sector and local authorities. For funders the use of participatory grant making to readdress decision making powers.
• Making outdoor pursuits, activities and adventure more accessible and valued.
• For funders, providing more unrestricted funding for charities, providing responsive and quicker decisions and reducing bureaucracy.

We’ve been hearing and seeing some of these changes in action, for example, people reassessing what is important and changing their working practices to match (going part-time, caring less about money/career, exploring new roles); the rise in gratitude and ‘thank you’s; charities ‘working out loud’ being more visible and easier to support; things that would have taken years are now shifting much more rapidly; and for some young people a reduction of anxiety as they are not in school and social pressures are reduced — fear of missing out has all but disappeared.

Over the next week (and a half because of the bank holiday) our staff will continue to have conversations with grant holders, applicants and contacts about what they are seeing and noticing. If you are interested in feeding into the process we would really appreciate your thoughts and views. Please get in touch with hannah.paterson@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk to arrange a call.