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How can you build trauma-informed practice into your grantmaking?

This blog shares some practical tips from our Survivors of Childhood Abuse Support (SOCAS) fund teams’ experience alongside resources you can use to develop your grantmaking practice. It follows on from a presentation to the 4th Meeting of the Trauma-Informed Grantmaking Community of Practice on 27 Feb 2025. 

Trauma happens when we experience very stressful, frightening or distressing events that are difficult to cope with, or out of our control. It could be one incident or an ongoing event over a long period. Trauma affects people differently. It can affect how we react to danger, how we feel, and our mental and physical health. The right support at the right time can be hugely beneficial. Trauma-informed practice recognises that safety, trust, choice, collaboration and empowerment are critical to delivering quality support and reducing the risk of re-traumatisation. 

We all have much to learn about trauma-informed practice. Adopting this into any service or organisation, including grantmaking, is not a one-time thing.  

At its heart, trauma-informed practice is about realising the widespread impact of trauma, taking care to reduce the risk of re-traumatisation, and building better pathways to recovery. 

Putting this into practice as grant makers can feel daunting. In this blog, we share our experience of managing the SOCAS fund since 2020. For further information about the fund and our learnings as a funder, please see our Insights Report. 

Before we share our 5 steps to building trauma-informed practice into grantmaking, there are some key points we’d like to mention about the approach we took when embarking on this journey.  

Be curious and humble

Don’t be afraid to ask questions of those with lived and professional experience to build your knowledge. Embarking on trauma-informed practice will be ongoing, and you will continue to learn and adapt as you go.  

We created the SOCAS Resource Hub for practitioners who are supporting people affected by childhood abuse as a place where they could review, learn, and evaluate their practice. You will find information about staff skills, welfare, and training, as well as the different trauma approaches and validated measures for evaluation. We believe this is a helpful resource for funders too.  

Be positive in the language you use

Recovery from trauma such as child abuse is possible, and we all have a role in lifting the stigma and shame that surrounds this area. Using positive language is an important step towards this.  

Lived experience at the heart

There is no better way to ensure that practice is trauma-informed than ensuring that the voice and insight of people affected by trauma are embedded in any work. Ask about how this is done at the application stage and subsequent reporting, including how survivor voice and insights are influencing the development of the service.  

It’s important to remember that staff and professionals working in this area often bring lived experience too. 

5 steps for building trauma-informed practice into grantmaking  

Step 1

Trust – This takes time to build.

You can create the environment within grantmaking for building trust by:  

• Agreeing on long-term and timely funding decisions that support the sustainability of services and staff retention. 

• Sharing with charities that you aren’t expecting instant results, and you understand that referral pathways and outcomes will take time to build 

• Survivors know they are accessing a service where they will be believed, feel safe and respected, and have choice and control over their recovery. Confidentiality is vital, particularly in small communities. It’s vital to check that processes for this are in place at the application stage.  

Step 2

Safety – Consider what is being delivered and how 

You will know the services you are supporting are safe if: 

• You understand both what is being offered for survivors and HOW this is being delivered 

• You are watchful for indications of vicarious trauma and inappropriate caseloads or insufficient training or supervision in the organisations you are funding 

Don’t forget to also consider carefully the safety of you and your team, particularly when reviewing applications, sharing case histories or other times where sensitive details may be shared. We find regular, proactive and open conversations about professional boundaries and sources of support are helpful.  

Step 3

Collaboration and Learning – The key to better practice 

There is so much to learn in this area of practice:  

• Building communities of practice as funders, such as the Trauma Informed Grantmaking Community of Practice, allows us to share and learn from each other.  
• Making time for this is important; the learning in embedding trauma-informed practice is ongoing. 
• Consider partnering with other funders to enhance reach and impact and ensure people
  with lived experience of trauma are involved in the design and delivery of your funding.

Step 4

Trust and Empowerment – What flexibility can you offer? 

Our key tip is to use outcomes as your guide rather than outputs.  

• Over the four years of the SOCAS fund, we have seen many developments and adaptations to funded services. Evaluation and insights from survivors must guide these.  

• Where possible, offer flexibility in funding to facilitate developments and adaptations to funded work.   

Step 5

Accessibility and cultural inclusivity – So much more to be done 

We know that more needs to be done to improve awareness, accessibility, and choice for people with trauma from all communities. 

Achieving this requires open conversations about trauma, its prevention, prevalence, and lasting effects. Listening and learning from across communities will be key to this. 

It’s important to ask ourselves:  

• Which communities are not engaging with funded services? Why is this? 
• Are there culturally sensitive services available that we need to build relationships with?
• How can we engage more with these communities?

Embedding trauma-informed practice into grantmaking is an ongoing process. With this blog, we hope to have shared some of our learnings that can support you in this journey.  

Our journey is ongoing, and we would love to hear from others about their thoughts on our learning so far, and their processes. Get in touch at socasenquiries@inspiringscotland.org.uk – we look forward to hearing from you!