Making Music receives grant from Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Leisure-time music charity Making Music has been awarded a grant from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The charity will receive a total of £199,980 over three years to expand and improve Making Music’s services to its member groups.

Making Music has recently celebrated a record high of 4,000 member groups, all of whom will receive more services and stronger advocacy for their work as a result of this grant. The fund has also made it possible for Making Music Scotland manager and deputy CEO, Alison Reeves, to expand her role to also support work on access and inclusion as well as lobbying and advocacy.

Barbara Eifler, the charity's chief executive, said: ‘We are delighted to receive funding from a grant maker whose vision of vibrant communities is one that Making Music entirely shares. This funding allows us to scale up our support for music groups of all kinds and all genres, empowering them to manage their activity, to bring joy, pride and well-being to their audiences, and to articulate their worth to policy makers.’

The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is one of the UK’s largest independent funders. Founded in 1961 by Ian Fairbairn and named after his wife who was killed in World War II, the foundation uses funds generated from its investment portfolio support three main aims: ‘to improve our natural world, secure a fairer future and nurture creative, confident communities’.

The grant has facilitated the first year of the appointment of a dedicated support officer for groups using Making Music Platform and will allow Making Music to continue to help its members run their groups as well as supporting their financial resilience through resources and services, such as the charity’s Orchestra Tax Relief service.

Making Music also plans to partner with organisations representing people with lived experience of barriers to participation to produce online resources tackling the subject of access and inclusion.