SmartyGrants sets sail for the UK, helping grants flow south

The Global Maritime Histories project, led by the International Congress of Maritime Museums (ICMM), is among the first UK-based organisations to use the SmartyGrants platform.

UK grantmakers welcome the SmartyGrants ethos

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Sir George Martin Trust have also adopted the grantmaking platform, and SmartyGrants is in talks with several UK councils as well.

To serve its growing UK user base, SmartyGrants has expanded its cloud infrastructure to include UK servers, ensuring grantmakers’ data is hosted in the London region, a key requirement of many UK grantmakers. The platform has also achieved Cyber Essentials certification.

Last month, SmartyGrants UK further cemented its place in the UK when its UK-based company, Our Community International, was named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s Back Office Software 2 framework [RM6285]. Our Community International Ltd is a supplier on Lot 2 for Specialist Software Solutions. This framework gives all public sector organisations access to Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions for back office applications, for deploying either in the cloud, on premise, or hybrid.

"Crown Commercial Service supports the public sector to achieve maximum commercial value when procuring common goods and services. In 2023/24, CCS helped the public sector to achieve commercial benefits equal to £4.9 billion - supporting world-class public services that offer best value for taxpayers," CCS says. UK public sector organisations can view the framework here.

SmartyGrants executive director Kathy Richardson – who heads the company’s operations in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America – said the expansion had been accelerated by the similarities between Australian, New Zealand and UK grantmaking processes.

Richardson said UK grantmakers had shown a strong interest in the SmartyGrants approach of working with clients as partners, rather than working as a software company providing tools.

“Our tech evolves alongside our users’ objectives and challenges. We act like a partner because we sincerely care about the results,” Richardson said.

She said as well as providing best-in-class tech, SmartyGrants worked to improve grantmaking expertise by providing practical resources, and networking and training events. A grantmaking roundtable held last year had attracted representatives from 32 Scottish councils, she said.

“There is a real appetite for smarter, more efficient ways to manage grants”, Richardson said. “This is more important than ever as grants budgets contract all over the world. As well as sharing what we’ve learned in over 20 years of grantmaking reform, primarily on our home territory of Australia and New Zealand, we are also now very excited to be able to learn from the UK experience.”

SmartyGrants UK engagement and support manager Vicky Coutts said the response to SmartyGrants UK since its market entry mid last year was overwhelmingly positive.

"The enthusiasm and momentum in the UK grantmaking sector right now is truly inspiring,” she said.

“From my conversations with funders across the country, it’s clear there’s a real appetite for innovation and change. Grantmakers seem genuinely excited to discover a system that’s been designed by a socially oriented organisation and that responds to their everyday needs, and those of their grantees."

Maritime museums win pilot funding

Globally, SmartyGrants works with more than 750 organisations, including approximately 200 local authorities and more than 250 central government agencies, to manage more than 12,000 grant programs in 55 countries.

The global nature of grantmaking is evident in the ICMM’s new Global Maritime Histories project, which seeks to highlight “case studies for change”.

The recipients sharing the ICMM’s £150,000 (AU$289,500) in pilot funding are:

• Australian National Maritime Museum: £50,000 (AU$96,500) for training for museum administrators in partnership with the University of Guam
• New Zealand Maritime Museum: £50,000 (AU$96,500) for “ocean literacy” through research, immersive media and innovative design
• Australian Wooden Boat Festival: £25,000 (AU$48,250) to enable knowledge-sharing and networking aimed at celebrating Pacific Islands seafaring wisdom
• Museo Marítimo Nacional (Chile): £25,000 (AU$48,250) for a knowledge-sharing workshop and new network for maritime museums in Latin America

A total of £1 million (AU$1.93 million will be distributed over several years by the ICMM, which is based in Greenwich. Funds for the project are provided by the UK’s Lloyd’s Register Foundation.

ICMM president Kristen Greenaway said the project would preserve maritime heritage and connect maritime heritage institutions worldwide, “but also ensures that stories from underrepresented communities and forgotten histories are given a voice”.

She said the pilot would help create “resources and toolkits that can benefit the wider maritime museum and maritime heritage community worldwide.”

The ICMM is a network of maritime organisations that spans 35 countries and six continents. The organisation works to preserve and tell the histories of seafarers and maritime cultures.

The congress’s next major gathering will be held at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney in 2026.

More information

More about the funding provided by the ICMM’s Global Histories Project