Impact London Collective: Collective Philanthropy Driving Women’s Rights with a £2 Million Goal by 2028

With an ambitious goal of awarding £2 million cumulatively by 2028, the Impact London Collective is poised to set a powerful precedent for women’s charities in London and across the UK.

This Women’s History Month, we couldn’t think of a more fitting organisation to spotlight, one dedicated to strengthening the ecosystem for local women’s organisations.

At the heart of their work is a unique collective philanthropy model: a collaborative, democratic approach to charitable giving that brings individuals together to pool their resources and fund transformative grants. By enabling more informed and strategic giving, this model not only amplifies impact but also fosters deeper civic and community engagement.

We spoke to co-founders Erica Wax and Lani Martin. 

Why was the Impact London Collective founded?

Like many initiatives, it began with a shared passion - specifically, a deep commitment of our co-founders and founding leadership team to empowering women and raising aspirations for girls.  But we didn’t stop at passion; we wanted to understand the landscape properly. So we spent about a year speaking to foundations, charities, and philanthropists to really interrogate the need.

What emerged was a clear, two-sided gap - on both the charity side and the donor side. Women and girls’ charities are chronically underfunded, often overstretched, and facing rising demand for their services. At the same time, on the donor side, there was a disconnect. Around that time we launched, research highlighted that median giving among wealthy individuals in the UK was surprisingly low, which really struck a chord. More anecdotally, we found many people in our own networks who wanted to give more, and could give more, but lacked either the time, the confidence, or the knowledge of where to start - often all three.

Impact London Collective was created to bridge that gap: to channel both the need for funding and the untapped willingness to give into something more structured, impactful, and collaborative.

Women’s charities receive just 2% of UK grant funding. How is your model specifically designed to fix this gap?

What makes Impact London Collective distinctive is the collective model itself. We are building a community of philanthropists who share a commitment to supporting women and girls, and who come together to pool relatively accessible contributions of money, time, and expertise.

Through our model, which includes a democratic vote to award our main grant, we are introducing  members to charities that they would not otherwise know and giving them the confidence to invest in these organisations.  On average, over 80% of our members have never heard of at least two of our three finalists each cycle.  

And by funding collectively, we’re able to unlock significantly larger total donations than any one individual could give alone. For instance, the vast majority of our members contribute £1,000 to the grant fund each year, because we had over 200 members last year, we were able to give three significant grants totalling £250,000.  Just as importantly, we’re making philanthropy more accessible and more informed - demystifying the process and encouraging people to engage more meaningfully with where their money goes.

At its core, it’s about democratising philanthropy: widening participation, deepening understanding, identifying unique impactful charities and creating a more collaborative approach to giving.

Why is the collective model particularly powerful when it comes to supporting women and girls?

The collective model is especially powerful in this space because it amplifies both resources and impact. Individually, most donors can make a difference - but together, we can provide large, unrestricted grants that are genuinely transformative for organisations.

Equally important is what sits alongside the funding. Women and girls’ charities often need more than financial support - they benefit hugely from access to skills and expertise. Through our network, we’ve facilitated over 2,000 hours of pro bono support, spanning legal advice, strategic guidance, executive coaching, and mentorship. By creating a platform where grantees can directly engage with members and partners, we break down traditional barriers between funders and charities, leading to deeper understanding and more meaningful, ongoing support.

The collective approach also brings diverse perspectives into the decision-making process. This helps us identify opportunities and challenges that any one individual might miss, while also creating a powerful learning environment for our members.

Crucially, many women and girls’ organisations are innovating in areas that don’t always fit neatly into traditional funding models. Collective philanthropy helps to de-risk that innovation. It allows us to back ambitious, sometimes complex ideas with confidence - because we are doing it together.

Ultimately, the model doesn’t just provide funding; it builds a network of informed advocates, multiplies influence, and helps drive longer-term structural change.

Every member gets one vote, regardless of their background. How does this “democratic philanthropy” change who gets funded?

Our one-member, one-vote approach ensures that the allocation of our grant funds is shaped by a broad and diverse group of perspectives.  Additionally, as a group we are willing to take more risks than if we were making independent decisions. In practice, this means we are more likely to support smaller, earlier stage, or more complex organisations - those that may fall outside the scope of more traditional funding models.

It also fundamentally shifts the dynamic of philanthropy. Members are not just passive donors; they are engaged participants in the process. Through learning from each other and from the organisations themselves, they develop a much deeper understanding of the issues, which in turn leads to more thoughtful and inclusive funding decisions.

Beyond grants and funding, your members offer pro bono skills. What’s one success story where a volunteer’s expertise transformed a small charity?

We’ve seen many powerful examples of this in action. Our members and partners have contributed over 2,000 hours of pro bono support to our grantees. This ranges from global law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP offering legal support to all 21 of our grantees, to communications expert and founding member Edie Lush running intensive workshops to help charities sharpen how they communicate with different stakeholders.

One of my favourite examples, though, came from a much more unexpected place. A grantee shared that they were struggling with how to configure their office space so that it worked better for both staff and the women they support. We reached out to our network, and one of our members with a background in architecture and design volunteered to help.

What followed was a highly structured, collaborative process - engaging different stakeholders within the organisation, identifying key challenges, and ultimately delivering practical, cost-effective recommendations. It’s a great example of how the right expertise, offered at the right moment, can have a very tangible impact on how a charity operates day-to-day.

We might also add that Impact London Collective is an entirely voluntary led organisation!  Since our inception in 2020, we have awarded £1,250,000 to 21 local women and girls charities.  That feels like quite a good example too.

How do you find small, “under the radar” grassroots organisations that bigger foundations often miss?

The UK benefits from the transparency of Charity Commission data, which provides visibility across organisations of all sizes.  However, what really differentiates our approach is not just access to information, but where we choose to focus our attention.

We intentionally seek out smaller, often younger organisations that are tackling complex or less well-understood issues.  These are often the charities that struggle most to secure funding, particularly because their impact can be harder to measure using traditional frameworks.

Our process combines research with recommendations from our network and sector experts, allowing us to identify organisations that may not yet be widely recognised but are doing deeply important and innovative work.

And our due diligence process, which focuses on the organisation as a whole - its strategy, impact, governance and financial controls - allow us to provide unrestricted funding.  Empowering charity management to determine how best to deploy the funds to enhance the organisational impact.  This is particularly important for smaller charities that need to invest in their infrastructure and management talent to support their growth.

With a goal to award £2M by 2028, what does “success” look like beyond just the total amount?

While increasing the flow of funding into the women and girls sector is a key goal, success for us goes well beyond the headline number.

We want to strengthen the entire ecosystem around women and girls’ organisations. That means continuing to grow a community of informed, engaged, and confident philanthropists who are committed to this space for the long term.

It also means listening closely to our grantees -understanding what they truly need, and then mobilising not just funding, but the full breadth of resources within our network to support them.

Ultimately, success looks like a more resilient, better-supported sector, alongside a shift in how philanthropy operates: more collaborative, more inclusive, and more responsive to the realities on the ground.

Charity check-in

At Smiley Movement, we like to elevate the work of charities across the world. Here are three charities whose causes align with the themes in this article. 

Impact London Collective. Impact London Collective pools donations from individuals to fund transformative grants for charities supporting marginalised women and girls in London, amplifying both funding impact and civic engagement.  Learn more here.

Canadian Women’s Foundation. This organisation funds community programs and advocacy initiatives to end gender-based violence, improve economic security, and promote leadership opportunities for women and gender-diverse people across Canada. Discover their work here.

Feminist Majority Foundation. This organisation supports the development of women’s rights, non-violence and reproductive healthcare. Their work combines research and action-led programmes to advance feminism in the US. Find out more here.

This positive news article aligns with the UN SDG Gender Equality.