Trust-based philanthropy is a model of funding and support which seeks to advance a more just and equitable society by providing deeper and more collaborative support to organisations.

Key aspects of the approach include providing multi-annual, unrestricted funding; reducing the paperwork burden on organisations; offering non-monetary developmental support, and, crucially, building a strong, mutually accountable relationship between funder and grantee.

At its heart, trust-based philanthropy starts from a position of respect for the knowledge, insight, experience and skill of the organisations being supported, and seeks to address the unequal power dynamics that can often exist in the funder-grantee relationship.

It follows from this position of respect that funding must come with both the freedom and the encouragement to use it creatively and imaginatively, to take risks, to embrace the constructive learning that comes from set-backs, and to be able to alter course when local wisdom and the wider context demand such flexibility.

All the evidence so far suggests that this model, with its freedom from the much more common annual treadmill of funding applications, reporting requirements and inflexibility in the face of change, alters the relationship between funder and recipient. That relationship now offers a level of mutual learning, support and encouragement which goes far beyond the value of the grants themselves and is ultimately of considerable benefit to the work and the communities being supported.