Foundation reports progress towards a fairer Leeds

Today we’re publishing our Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) Year End Report, which shares what we’ve achieved during the second year of our 2024-2029 strategy, what we’ve learned and where we’re focusing our efforts next.

The report shows strong progress in making funding more flexible, increasing long-term investment and ensuring funding reaches communities experiencing the greatest disadvantage.

 

Supporting communities with more flexible funding

One of our key strategic priorities is increasing flexible funding. Community organisations consistently tell us that unrestricted funding gives them the freedom to respond to local needs, strengthen their organisations and plan for the future.

In 2025/26, 60% of our grant payments were flexible, exceeding our target for the year and representing the highest level of flexible grant making we’ve achieved so far.

 

Investing where it’s needed most

Creating a fairer Leeds is at the heart of our mission. During the year, 64% of our grant funding in Leeds was invested in the city’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, helping ensure resources reach communities facing the greatest challenges.

We also continued to strengthen our approach to equity, diversity and inclusion. This included improving how we collect data through grant applications, increasing outreach to underrepresented groups and ensuring equity is reflected throughout our funding programmes and decision making.

 

Giving communities a stronger voice

We believe people with lived experience should help shape decisions about where funding goes.

During 2025/26, community participation played a role in decision making across 11 of our 23 grant programmes, helping ensure local voices influence how funding is distributed.

 

More long-term funding

Long-term funding gives organisations greater stability and confidence to plan ahead.

Over the past year, we increased our investment in multi-year grants, with two and three-year grants accounting for the largest share of grant value awarded. This reflects our commitment to supporting organisations to create lasting change, rather than simply responding to immediate challenges.

 

Creating impact beyond the grant

One example highlighted in the report is a £20,000 grant awarded through The Leeds Fund’s Collective Impact programme to Climate Action Leeds.

The funding helped unlock a further £480,000 of investment, strengthened the programme’s focus on equity and helped position Leeds for future national funding opportunities. It’s a powerful example of how strategic investment can create impact far beyond the original grant.

 

Looking ahead

While we’re proud of the progress made during 2025/26, we know there’s more to do.

Over the coming year, we’ll focus on increasing support for micro-organisations, strengthening community participation in grant making, continuing to grow flexible funding opportunities and improving how we collect and share diversity and inclusion data.

 

Read the full report here.