City Bridge Foundation

How we helped City Bridge Foundation bring together the organisations they fund, to learn, celebrate and re-energise after the Covid-19 pandemic

Project highlights

Large scale facilitation
Learning from and sharing experiences
Community and Voluntary Sector organisations
London

Add Your Heading Text Here

Loading...

The key benefit for us was that Brightpurpose were a ‘safe pair of hands’. They provided some great ideas when planning the day and then confidently managed the day, setting the scene and expertly facilitating each session within a highly interactive, relaxed and reflective space. We had some amazingly positive feedback from attendees and we could not have delivered the day to the standard we required if it were not for Brightpurpose’s expert contributions from design to delivery.

Donna Buxton -

Head of Impact and Learning

City Bridge Trust

Services provided

Loading...

The project brief

City Bridge Foundation gives grants to hundreds of community and voluntary sector organisations across Greater London, to the tune of more than £28 million a year. During the Covid-19 pandemic, they adapted their funding to help those organisations survive the storm of increased demand for services in the face of funding uncertainty. After lockdown restrictions ended, they asked us to design and facilitate an event for their funded organisations, to share their experiences and learn from each other, and to celebrate all the incredible things they achieved during this difficult time.

Our approach

We worked with the Evaluation and Learning Team to design a full-day event for up to 100 in person attendees, balancing opportunities for small group interaction, interesting speakers and information from the Trust. We were very mindful of this probably being the first in person event or meeting that many attendees had been to for almost two years, and built in lots of time for chatting and catching up. We also created activities and prompts to get the conversations flowing, as lots of us were out of practice at networking!

Our team of facilitators managed and led the activities on the day, whilst our administrative team managed welcome desk, catering liaison and logistics throughout the day, so that the entire City Bridge Foundation team could spend their time participating in the day alongside the organisations they fund, and could concentrate on learning from them.

Sharing our findings

The result

The event was the first of its kind that City Bridge Foundation had organised, and participants said they would love to do it again. The room was full of energy all day, and participants shared many similar experiences of overcoming the challenges that Covid-19 posed to their organisations and the people they served, and lessons about how they have become more resilient as a result. As well as participants gaining from this dialogue, they offered City Bridge Foundation lots of ideas and learning for how to be an even more effective funder and partner in future.

It’s time to make confident decisions about the future.

More case studies

BBC Children in Need

How we helped BBC Children in Need understand the difference their Covid response made.

Street Soccer London

How we helped Street Soccer London demonstrate how football changes young people’s lives in London.

Overcoming Conflict

How we have helped organisations investigate and address senior level conflict and behavioural challenges.

Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales

How we’re supporting Lloyds Bank Foundation to explore new ways of building a sustainable future for small charities and the people they support

Versus Arthritis

How we helped Versus Arthritis learn how to implement an evidence-based pain management programme at scale.

Wellcome

How we supported Wellcome and their partners BBC Children in Need to understand the role informal science learning can play in children and young people’s personal and social development