What’s new with the Which? Fund

At Which?, as the UK's consumer champion, we want to make sure that the voices of all consumers are heard, and that action is taken to tackle consumer harms. 

But that isn't an easy job - or one we can do alone. Some communities, for example people living with disabilities or health conditions, low-income groups, and members of diverse ethnic communities, might experience different forms of consumer harm, or be more exposed to certain forms of harm. Knowing that the Covid-19 pandemic hit disadvantaged groups harder, and that the cost of living crisis is doing the same, this has never been more important.

The Which? Fund is one of the ways that we seek to serve consumers in diverse and disadvantaged communities, by offering grants to other not-for-profit organisations to help support work that uncovers the harm these communities face, and identifies potential solutions.

Time for round two

After a successful first year, we're delighted to announce that the Fund is open for a second round of applications. 

This year, our call covers two areas:

1. As last year, we have a broad call for projects exploring consumer harms experienced by diverse and disadvantaged communities within our four impact areas: money, scams, digital life and consumer rights & protections.
2. We've added a second call for projects looking at the harms that people in diverse and disadvantaged communities might specifically face in digital markets. 

The internet brings consumers many benefits - opportunities to spot bargains, the comfort of shopping from your sofa, and choice from around the world to name a few. But there are also some aspects of online markets that are more worrying - and which might pose a particular risk of harm to certain consumer groups. For example, some consumer groups might be more vulnerable than others to 'dark patterns' - the design features used by websites and apps to influence consumer behaviour, which can both cause frustration and financial harm. Use of algorithmic systems could also create bias which has a disproportionate impact on diverse groups, and may be difficult to spot if, for example, machine learning systems are drawing on complex groups of variables which are correlated with protected characteristics.

By specifically asking for applications on these digital issues, we hope to learn more about the harm diverse and disadvantaged communities face in these markets, which is often tricky to spot, and might require specialist technical skills.

Get involved!

The call for initial applications is open until 5pm on Monday 19th September. Further details on how to apply are available here. You might also find it helpful to read What makes a successful application to the Which? Fund?.

If you don’t work for an eligible institution (a UK registered charity, university with exempt charitable status or not-for-profit Community Interest Company) we’d love it if you could help us spread the word instead.  

We can't wait to see what exciting proposals are put forward this time, and how, together, we can tackle the consumer harm diverse and disadvantaged communities are experiencing.