22 September 2000
Gurbux Singh called on members of the London Funders Group to use their financial muscle to promote the fight against racism.
He said all grant-making bodies should introduce monitoring regimes to establish how their money was being spent and to see if measures introduced by applicant groups to tackle racial inequality were succeeding.
Singh also told LFG members, which include all the London boroughs, the Home Office and the National Lottery Charities Board, to review their own grant application processes to ensure ethnic minority groups were being given fair access to resources.
'The members of the LFG have considerable clout in terms of patronage for the projects they choose to support. But who chooses? How are decisions taken? Do you monitor where those funds go and how they are used?' he asked delegates at the Funding Post-Lawrence conference.
'Monitoring race equality outcomes is one of the keys to making sure you are helping all races and cultures to help themselves according to their diverse needs.'
Promoting anti-racism strategies would give ethnic minority community leaders the confidence and expertise needed to make successful grant applications, Singh added.
The LFG's 110 organisations control an annual budget of £400m.
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