Core & Flexible Funding: Why It Is More Critical Than Ever

​Across the global funding landscape, tension exists between core, flexible funding and restricted project-based funding, and community-led organizations are increasingly caught in the middle due to shrinking resources. While project funding can deliver targeted results, it often cannot sustain the infrastructure, relationships, and adaptive capacity that communities require.

​The session brings together core funders, project funders, programmers, and practitioners to explore what unrestricted funding truly makes possible in practice—and what is lost without it.

​This 60-minute workshop will be led by Kate Thomson, Vice-Chair of the Robert Carr Fund International Steering Committee, Olga Szubert, Deputy Director, International Network of People Who Use Drugs and Oliver Anene, Program Officer at RCF. Kate brings nearly four decades of experience in global health, working across community and civil society organizations as well as senior leadership roles in multilateral institutions, building strong, enduring relationships to drive meaningful policy and programmatic change. Oliver is a seasoned program officer with extensive experience developing progressive SRHR policies and promoting equality and human rights for marginalized communities worldwide.

​Through a highly interactive session, participants will:

• ​Capture insights from communities in real time to understand the impact of RCF’s work

• ​See how core funding functions as a model for supporting long-term organizational resilience

• ​Gain the language and evidence to advocate for core funding within their own organizations

​Designed for core funders, project funders, grant recipients, programmers, practitioners, and anyone engaged in the ecosystem, this workshop offers practical tools and collaborative discussion for advancing community-led impact.