Navigating the funding landscape continues to be a challenge for community-based mental health initiatives (CBMHIs). Transformation across stages of the funding process is needed to better support these organisations. A survey conducted by Ember Mental Health, the SHM Foundation’s flagship programme, provides insights into key challenges for CBMHIs and what this transformation might look like for funders.

Meeting global mental health needs is an immense challenge, complicated by the scale of the need and its diversity: there is no one-size-fits-all approach. CBMHIs are singularly equipped to provide tailored mental health care in communities, responding to local priorities in ways that are relevant, culturally sensitive, and sustainable.

However, CBMHIs encounter significant difficulties, including inadequate funding. Mental health remains underfunded across sources. The evaluation of Ember’s 2020-2021 partnerships revealed that funding was a primary threat to initiatives’ sustainability and in the last open call for partnerships, 84 percent of applicants cited funding as a pressing challenge.

To seek a deeper understanding of this problem, Ember ran a survey to explore both the current funding situation of diverse CBMHIs and the barriers and facilitators to applying and reporting to grants. Ember’s network of 350+ initiatives and partners were invited to participate and asked to share further within national and international networks.

Over 110 initiatives completed the survey from 28 different countries, working across a diverse range of mental health focus areas. 76 percent of the initiatives were based in Africa, 17 percent in Asia, 6 percent in Latin America, and 2 percent worked globally.  Although team sizes were mostly small – 73 percent had teams of 25 or smaller – almost 70 percent of initiatives noted supporting 500 people or more, speaking to the high demand that CBHMIs respond to.

So, what did they tell us?

  • Funding opportunities are hard to find out about
  • Opportunities fail to align with the day-to-day realities of CBMHIs
  • Grant cycles are too short-term
  • The funding process takes a toll on the mental health of teams
  • Applying and reporting can be a constructive exercise
  • It doesn’t take huge amounts of funding

Read the full article about global mental health funding by June Larrieta at Alliance Magazine.