Facts and figures about Two Magpies Fund as we celebrate 7 years of supporting safer lives and stronger futures
When we set up Two Magpies Fund in 2019, we wanted to do things differently. Our founder had spent years fundraising for causes she believed in, and knew first-hand how much time and energy good causes lose to lengthy applications and slow decisions. So we built a fund around a simple idea: keep the process straightforward and supportive, and get money to where it's needed quickly, without excessive bureaucracy.
As we approach our 7th birthday, we commissioned an independent evaluation expert to tell us, honestly, whether that idea was working, by anonymously surveying and interviewing our grantees (past and present). And the results are in.....
Since 2019, we've awarded £2,551,699 to 79 organisations working to prevent violence against women and girls and to give children the best start in life. Ninety-one percent of our grantees told us our relationship with them, and our speed of decision-making, were stronger than other funders; 82% said the same of our reporting requirements. Asked to describe Two Magpies Fund in a word, they chose approachable, collaborative, flexible, trusted, critical friend - the very qualities we set out to build seven years ago. We couldn't be prouder of these results!
More importantly, we know the funding is reaching the people it's meant for: 89% of grantees said it had improved beneficiaries' mental health and wellbeing, and 91% said it had strengthened their organisation's financial sustainability. We won't pretend the evaluation found nothing to improve, there were definitely some learnings which we will be implementing over the next few months. But an average satisfaction score of 4.9 out of 5 tells us we're supporting safer lives and stronger futures in the way we originally hoped we would!
A heartfelt thank you to every organisation that took part in our evaluation project. It's nerve-wracking to hand an independent expert the keys and ask them to tell you what they find under the bonnet of your organisation. But if funders aren't brave enough to face that scrutiny ourselves, we can't expect it of the charities we fund.
