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Regenerative Futures Fund: What is the fund about and how can you get involved? 🌱
- SHRUB Coop
- Sep 19
- 5 min read
Over the past few weeks, we have been learning what the Regenerative Futures Fund (RFF) is all about and what it could mean for SHRUB. The good news is - we’re starting to get somewhere!
Summary: SHRUB is developing a proposal to address the root causes of poverty, racism, and climate change in Edinburgh. The proposal will be for £50k–£100k per year over 10 years, and will be developed through a co-design process from October to December 2025. A residents panel will determine which projects receive funding in February 2026.
Our Opportunity: SHRUB has three active projects - Wee Spoke Hub, Food Sharing Hub, and the Edinburgh Street Stitchers / Sewing & Mending Group - which offer a lens to explore systemic change. This is our chance to shape SHRUB’s long-term role in tackling the root causes of poverty, racism, and climate change in Edinburgh.
Call to Action: We invite you to participate in the co-design process, with an expected time commitment of approx. 2-4 hours per week between October and December. The co-design process will use deliberative decision-making, and no specific expertise is required to participate - the most important thing is a collaborative mindset.
Key Terms
Systemic Change: Changes that fix problems in the whole system, rather than “putting a plaster” on one part.
Co-Design: Creating something together by involving the people who will use or be affected by it.
Theory of Change: A clear plan that explains how and why certain actions will lead to the change you want.
Deliberative Decision-Making: Making choices while listening to different perspectives, seeking common ground, and prioritising the collective good over individual wins.
Regenerative Future: A future where humans and nature work together in a healthy way, so that the planet and communities can heal and grow stronger.
Please Note: As we develop our proposal, we will take part in training on these and other key themes, with space for dialogue on how they connect to SHRUB.
What is the Regenerative Futures Fund (RFF)?
This programme is for movements, collectives and grassroots organisations who are committed to the deep and long-term work needed to address the root causes of poverty, racism and climate change. It focuses on the intersections between these issues, creating space for people to collectively imagine and build towards a regenerative and just future for Edinburgh.
SHRUB Cooperative has been selected as one of the 34 groups participating in the capacity-building phase. From now until December 2025, we will develop a proposal for long-term, unrestricted funding of up to £100,000 per year for ten years. A residents panel - made up of Edinburgh community members with lived experience of poverty and inequity - will decide which groups receive funding after the proposals are submitted.
As a cooperative it is essential that we get our members involved in this process - perhaps you are interested in exploring the topic of systemic change & co-designing a project with and for SHRUB’s members?
SHRUB’s Current Landscape
Since the closure of the Zero Waste Hub, three projects remain at the heart of SHRUB today:
🚲 The Wee Spoke Hub: Our only funded project with a dedicated project coordinator, based at 13 Guthrie Street.
🥗 The Food Sharing Hub: Volunteer-led project, based at the Pavilion Café, The Meadows.
🧵 The Edinburgh Street Stitchers / Sewing & Mending Group: Volunteer-led project, based at Tollcross Community Centre.
These projects provide a lens through which we can explore systemic change, helping us understand how local actions connect to broader social, economic, and environmental systems.
While funding is not guaranteed, the co-design process and training provided by the Regenerative Futures Fund will be useful for us to better understand how our activities deliver (or fall short) in addressing systemic change.
Co-Designing SHRUB’s Proposal
The Regenerative Futures Fund offers us an opportunity to pause and reflect:
👉 What is SHRUB’s overall role as an organisation in addressing systemic change?
👉 How can we strengthen our projects to address systemic change and challenge the systems that shape our lives?
👉 How can we involve people with lived experience of poverty and racism in both co-design and co-delivery?
👉 How can we tackle the root causes - not just the symptoms - of poverty, racism, and the climate crisis?
👉 How can physical space support community-led change?
We will develop our proposal using the deliberative decision-making method, and the above are only some of the questions we may ask ourselves throughout this process.
Co-Design Process
The fund is unique in its effort, which means that we are all learning throughout this process. Over the next two months, SHRUB will receive access to training regarding the following frameworks:
Co-Design Best Practice
Anti-racism
Equity (and DEI Data Standard)
Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL)
Embedding Intersectionality
The Three-Horizons: Thinking & Planning for The Future
We plan to run our co-design sessions alongside the training calendar (dates yet to be confirmed), which will form the foundation for the funding proposal.
During our sessions we will also explore Systemic Change (how it relates to SHRUB and its projects) and the Theory of Change framework. Being part of the RFF cohort means we can also engage and form partnerships with other groups working toward systemic change.
Timeline & Expected Commitment
The expected time commitment is approx. 2-4 hours per week from October to December 2025. We anticipate that at least four 2-hour sessions will be required in October (alongside the training provided by RFF), with additional time needed to put the proposal together in November, and finalise the proposal in December.
While we are yet to find out the exact requirements of the proposal, we can already start forming our co-design group.
September: Members are invited to participate in the capacity-building phase.
October: Members meet to work through the key frameworks.
November: Project proposal is drafted.
December: Project proposal is finalised & submitted.
January - February: Resident panel chooses 10-15 projects for ten-year funding.
Before Participating, Please Consider:
1. Are you eager to learn about systemic change, and explore how it connects to SHRUB’s future direction?
2. Are you willing to dedicate time and energy to constructive participation? The expected time commitment is approx. 2-4 hours per week between October and December.
3. Are you open to deliberative decision-making? This means listening to different perspectives, seeking common ground, and prioritising the collective good over individual wins.
4. Do you intend to support and help deliver the project if it moves forward?
If you answered “yes” along the way, please register your interest and outline your motivation for getting involved by emailing:
hello@shrubcoop.org before Tuesday 30th September, 2025
Thank You 💚
To everyone considering getting involved: this is as much a learning journey as it is a funding opportunity.
While funding is not guaranteed, the co-design process will be useful for us to better understand how our activities deliver (or fall short) in addressing systemic change. As well as exploring partnership opportunities with other groups in the cohort.
We are deeply grateful to the Regenerative Futures Fund and the residents panel for giving us the chance to explore new ways of co-designing solutions that improve the lives of people experiencing poverty and racism, while contributing to a just green transition.
And finally, a big thank you to all who took the time to read through this wordy post - we appreciate you!
With so much love and gratitude,
the SHRUB team 🫶
