For racial justice. For every community.
Opening up opportunity for Black and racialised communities — building economic power, safety and belonging, and a stronger, fairer system.
A national charity, rooted locally.
The Equality Foundation is a national charity opening up opportunity for Black and racialised communities — building economic power, safety and belonging, and a stronger, fairer system, through research, advocacy and projects built with the people we serve.
Founded in 2000 and refocused in 2021 on racial justice, we work with and for Black and racialised communities across the UK and most intensively in West and North-West London, where we are rooted. We believe everyone has the right to equal opportunities, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
Where we are heading.
A future where Black and racialised communities thrive on equal terms — accessing the opportunity, safety and economic power too often kept out of reach.
We exist for the day this work is no longer needed. Until then, we measure ourselves not by how busy we are, but by whether opportunity actually reaches the people too often overlooked, and we change what does not work.
Three principles that guide every decision.
We do what is right, even when it's uncomfortable.
Transparent, honest and accountable in every pound we spend and every outcome we report. Our flagship programme was independently assessed as very good value for money.
Designed with communities, not for them.
Programmes are co-designed in trusted community venues, in the languages people actually speak. Lived experience sits in the room, not in a focus group.
A level playing field, measured in outcomes.
We hold ourselves to targets a funder can verify — placements, retention, wellbeing, not just activity. If a programme does not move the needle, we change it.
The need we exist to meet.
More than two decades into the twenty-first century, race still shapes who gets a fair education, a good job and lasting economic security in the UK. The barriers are rarely about talent. They are about access — to networks, to a first reference, to services that understand faith, language and migration rather than treating them as problems to be managed.
In West and North-West London — our home — Black, Muslim and minority-ethnic communities, many of Somali, Sudanese, Eritrean and Ethiopian heritage, face some of the steepest barriers in the country. Mainstream services rarely reach these communities, and rarely hold them once they do. The organisations that do reach them — small, trusted and community-led — are usually the most stretched and the least funded.
This is the gap the Equality Foundation exists to close: by delivering practical programmes that work, by strengthening the wider community sector, and by turning what we learn on the front line into the evidence that changes systems.
Built from the people we serve.
This strategy grows from lived experience, not a boardroom. Over an extended listening period we heard directly from the people we serve — young people, women, community practitioners, local leaders and policy-makers — through thousands of surveys, stakeholder workshops, individual interviews, group meetings and women-only consultation events, in the languages people actually speak.
It is also evidence-led. An independent evaluation of our flagship employment programme (2023–2026) found the funder's money very good value and confirmed what works: trusted venues, faith-sensitive delivery, and staying with people through the fragile early weeks of a job. Those lessons run through every priority that follows.
Who we heard from
Three priorities, 2026–2031.
Three strategic priorities will underpin everything we do over the next five years. Each is supported by the programmes that deliver it, and by outcomes a funder can hold us to.
Economic Justice
Good, lasting work and economic power for Black and racialised communities.
Work is the clearest route out of poverty, and the surface where racism bites hardest: in who gets hired, paid fairly and given the chance to progress. We help Black and racialised people into good, lasting work, and build the economic independence of the households and communities around them.
How we will do it
Into Employment — Women
A nine-month, evidence-based pathway, proven over three years and run in spaces women already trust.
- Women-only training, 1:1 application and interview coaching, and digital and AI skills for a changing job market
- Six months of in-work support, so a first job becomes a lasting one
- Proven impact: 121 women supported and 103 into work over three years — 87% in our strongest cohort, with 82% still in work at six months
Into Employment — Young People
Routes into work for minority-ethnic young people aged 16–25, blending skills with steady, personal support.
- Skills, a personal plan, coaching and real work placements
- A dedicated support worker for the first 12 weeks in a new role
- Mentors from minority backgrounds who reflect their lived experience
The change we create
- →More people into fair, sustained work
- →First-time workers breaking generational cycles of unemployment
- →Greater economic independence for minority-ethnic and women-led households
Safe, Connected Communities
Safety, belonging and stability — early, and in people's own language.
Opportunity means little without safety. Young people from Black and racialised communities are far more likely to be harmed by violence than to cause it, yet too often they are treated as the threat rather than the ones who need protecting. We start from a different belief: that violence is preventable, not inevitable, and that the people closest to young people — their families and the groups they already trust — are best placed to keep them safe.
How we will do it
Common Ground
Keeping young people safe, before harm ever happens, working with communities, not around them.
- Backing the smallest, most trusted frontline groups young people already turn to
- Early, preventative activity in the after-school hours and at weekends, when risk is highest
- Reaching the cold spots that larger funding streams miss
- A different story told about Black and racialised young people — not as suspects, but as people worth protecting
The change we create
- →More young people safe and supported in the highest-risk hours
- →Stronger, better-resourced grassroots groups protecting their own communities
- →Communities better connected, and better able to keep their young people safe
A Resilient Sector & Systemic Change
Stronger community organisations, and policy change that lasts.
The groups closest to Black and racialised communities are the most trusted and the least resourced, and the barriers they tackle are built into systems, not just circumstances. We strengthen the sector that holds communities up, and push for the policy change that should one day make our own programmes unnecessary.
How we will do it
Rooted
Long-term support for Black and racialised-led organisations, designed with them, not off the shelf.
- Leadership and governance support, and steadier, more secure funding
- Peer learning and space to grow alongside others facing the same pressures
- A partnership that adapts as needs change, so groups are built to last
Research & Advocacy
Turning frontline evidence into influence, and sharing our model so others can adopt it.
- Practical research and policy work grounded in what we see every day
- Inclusive-recruitment training that shifts how employers hire
- Sharing our learning at borough and city level to change decisions, not just describe them
The change we create
- →Stronger, longer-lasting community organisations
- →Our evidence shaping borough and city decisions
- →Inclusive recruitment embedded across more employers
Turning priorities into delivery.
Each year, an operational plan translates these three priorities into detailed delivery. It sets out the activity we will undertake, the outputs we will deliver and, most importantly, how we will measure the difference we make.
The plan is deliberately agile. We continually assess our work, its relevance to the communities we serve, and the need to develop new services as demand and the wider environment change. Where the evidence tells us something is not working, we change it.
Proven over three years
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trained | 40 | 36 | 45 |
| Into work | 33 | 31 | 39 |
Across the grant: 121 women trained, 103 into meaningful work.
Building the organisation to deliver.
To support our strategic priorities, we will strengthen the Equality Foundation itself across five areas.
Invest in our people
A small, expert team with the right skills and lived experience to deliver our mission, and the support to sustain it.
Secure sustainable, flexible income
Strengthen our financial resilience by diversifying beyond single grants, so good work is never lost to a funding gap.
Deepen partnerships
Grow our network of employers, councils, funders and community organisations — already more than sixty — to achieve greater impact together.
Communicate with impact
Turn what we learn on the front line into influence: stronger storytelling, policy outreach and convening power.
Evidence, learning and honesty
Root everything in independent evaluation and participatory learning, reporting outcomes openly and changing what does not work.
One page, the whole plan.
A future where Black and racialised communities thrive on equal terms.
Partner with us for a fairer future.
Dawes Road Hub, 20 Dawes Road, London SW6 7EN