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Food & Farming Funders Group
The Food & Farming Funders Group (FFFG) aims to share intelligence across philanthropic funders and enable more efficient, collaborative, and strategic grantmaking for sustainable food and farming in the UK.
Background
The agri-food sector is an integral part of the UK’s landscapes, economy, and culture:
- 69% of the UK’s land is dedicated to agriculture
- 450,000 people are employed by the agriculture / farming sector
- £162 billion contributed to the economy annually by the agri-food sector
However, the sector is facing significant challenges across many areas including climate, nature, waste, health, food security, and long-term resilience:
- 12% of the UK’s annual greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture
- £470 of food wasted each year by the average household
- 1 in 8 households face food insecurity
- 84% of fruit is imported from non-UK sources
Philanthropic funders are increasingly recognising the potential for food and farming to provide a significant positive contribution to the environment and society more broadly across the UK.
Based on the findings from Where the Green Grants Went 9, <5% of total giving goes to food and agriculture, with the median grant size just below £10,000, and 80% of total funding coming from the top 10 funders.
Not only is the total funding insufficient to meet the scale of the challenge, but low grant size and highly concentrated funding leave civil society organisations vulnerable to strategy shifts and having to over-allocate resources to grant applications and management.
At the same time, there is a lack of coordination between funders, with many working in isolation and missing opportunities to collaborate and co-fund.
Our Ambition
The FFFG aims to share knowledge and expertise amongst funders, and enable more efficient, collaborative, and strategic grant making for sustainable food and farming in the UK.
Our three core strategic aims are:
- Attract more funders and funding to drive change at scale and pace
- Share knowledge, expertise and build relationships
- Collaborate to create more funding for greater impact
join
Food & Farming Funders Group
Sign up to our mailing list, if you’d like to be kept up to date with FFFG as it evolves and establishes itself. You will receive the monthly FFFG newsletter, which brings together engagement opportunities, upcoming events, and relevant funding opportunities. Please note: the FFFG is a separate mailing list and group to EFN’s funder membership and you do not need to be an EFN funder member to join.
Who’s involved
The FFFG was established with EFN and a Steering Committee of philanthropic funders who are actively supporting food and farming in the UK:
- Esmee Fairbairn Foundation
- Farming the Future
- Rothschild Foundation
- Samworth Foundation
The FFFG is an exciting new initiative for EFN, but is not a sole EFN project. You do not need to be a member of EFN to join the FFFG and current funder members are not automatically added to this group or mailing list.