The last year has been nothing short of tumultuous. It has shaken us all up—often in different ways. While one set of us have become very risk averse and reluctant to return to normal ways, whatever the government says, others intensely feel that they have lost something fundamental over this period—their freedom—and they are angry and eager to get back to normal and more.

For some, a crisis can bring positive benefits, in that it brings us together—the war spirit in peacetime if you like. Examples of this include: the clapping of the NHS workers; the new respect for delivery drivers and shop workers; and the fact that no one, whatever their circumstances, is completely insulated from catching covid.

However, in actuality, covid has further exposed the divides in our society. There have been major differences in suffering across class, geography, ethnicity, disability, age and gender, be that hospitalisations, deaths, income falls or job losses.

Over the past 16 months, we have learnt that to have a bigger impact on fighting these inequalities, funders and philanthropists must change their ways. They need to move faster, collaborate more, and be less frightened of unrestricted, or core, funding. Some of this happened during the crisis, proving it’s not as impossible as we once feared. And, like all of us, they must too focus on whether they are working to tackle racial injustice. Encouragingly, new pots of funding are opening up. Yvonne Field from the Ubele Initiative, who will be speaking at NPC Ignites, has recently established a new £50m partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund, aimed at boosting funding and support to Black and minoritised community charities and grassroots groups over the next five years.

Read the full article about lessons from the pandemic by Dan Corry at NPC.