From participatory grant-making to organisational transformation, from scoping a new idea to delivering a complete programme: Twenty First Century Solutions is where funders, commissioners, and community organisations come when they need something done properly.
Integrated capabilities: Technology, Strategy and Delivery, and Connections — working together or independently for your challenge.
Eligibility responses processed by hand by one intermediary funder we work with — the infrastructure gap Communa was built to close.
"We combine deep sector expertise with purpose-built technology and an unrivalled network of practitioners to solve problems across the social impact landscape."
Tell us who you are — we'll show you what's most relevant.
Whether you're refreshing your strategy, redesigning a grant programme, navigating a governance challenge, or building community voice into your funding decisions, we work with funders at every stage. Our team has held senior roles inside the UK's major funding bodies. We understand your operating context because we've worked within it. And when you're ready to move to participatory grant-making, we've built Communa, the UK's first community-informed platform, to make it sustainable.
Explore how we support funders →Devolution, community wealth building, participatory budgeting, place-based investment: the ambitions are clear but the delivery is complex. You need approaches that are participatory and robust enough to satisfy scrutiny, innovative and pragmatic enough to work within procurement frameworks. We help commissioners design and deliver programmes that meet democratic accountability requirements while genuinely shifting power to communities. From initial scoping through to evaluation, we stay until it's working.
See our public sector work →If your organisation has community benefit obligations, ESG commitments, or a corporate foundation that wants to do more than write cheques, we can help — even if you can't yet articulate the brief. We won't overwhelm you with sector jargon or assume you know the landscape. We'll start by understanding what you're trying to achieve, diagnose what you actually need, and then deliver it — whether that's strategy, connections, technology, or all three.
Talk to us about your challenge →Communa was designed starting with communities furthest from funding: the organisations and groups that existing systems routinely overlook. It's owned by historically underserved communities, which means it's built around what actually matters when you're trying to access funding: clarity, accessibility, fairness, and a genuine voice in how decisions are made. If you're navigating the funding landscape and need support — we're here.
Find out how we can support your organisation →Some organisations come to us with clearly defined briefs: a programme that needs designing, a strategy that needs refreshing, a team that needs developing. We do all of that, and we do it well.
But just as often, they come to us with something messier — a problem that doesn't fit neatly into a brief. A new obligation they've never navigated before. An idea that's good but needs someone to figure out how to make it work.
That's where we're different. Twenty First Century Solutions isn't a firm that does one thing. We're the place the social sector comes when it needs the problem understood before the solution is designed. We scope, we strategise, we innovate, we deliver, we connect, and we build technology — often all within the same engagement.
When you need something that doesn't appear on the list, call us anyway. It's usually the unusual problems where we add the most value.
Our work spans a comprehensive range of challenges:
Participatory grant-making is no longer a fringe idea. Foundations across the UK are committing to community voice in their funding decisions. But the tools haven't kept up with the ambition.
Right now, many organisations committed to participatory approaches are managing the process through spreadsheets, manual eligibility checks, and facilitated video calls. One intermediary funder we work with processed over 7,500 eligibility responses by hand with a team of three. The dedication is extraordinary. The infrastructure gap is unsustainable.
Existing grant management platforms were designed for administration, not participation. They can track a grant through its lifecycle, but they can't enable a community panel to make an informed funding decision. So we built something that can — and the way we built it matters as much as what it does.
Most organisations in the sector do one thing: they advise, or they build technology, or they make connections. We do all three, and the combination is what makes the difference.
Our participatory grant-making platform, Communa, is purpose-built for funders who want community voice at the centre of their decisions — not as a box-ticking exercise, but as the engine of how funding flows.
Communa uses AI to handle the operational weight of participatory processes: eligibility screening, application analysis, community panel support, and decision documentation. It doesn't replace human judgment. It creates the conditions where human judgment can focus on what matters.
We work across the full range of challenges that funders, commissioners, and community organisations face. What makes this work distinctive isn't the type of engagement — it's the depth of understanding behind it.
We bring decades of experience from inside the UK's major funding bodies, not as observers, but as senior leaders who've designed and delivered programmes at national scale. We understand your constraints: board expectations, reporting requirements, limited staff capacity.
Sometimes the most valuable thing isn't a platform or a strategy — it's knowing who to call. After decades working across the UK social impact sector, we've built relationships with the practitioners, facilitators, community leaders, evaluators, and specialists who make things happen.
This isn't a database of contacts. It's the kind of knowledge you can only build by being in the sector long enough to know who's genuinely good, who's right for which kind of organisation, and who will actually deliver.
Communa is owned by historically underserved communities. That's not a marketing line — it's the legal and financial structure of the organisation. When you choose Communa, you're directly supporting the economic empowerment of the communities your funding is designed to serve.
Handles operational volume so community panels can focus on judgment — not administration.
Surfaces what matters to communities, not just what matters to funders.
Designed for diverse participation, including accessibility features shaped by the communities who need them.
Creates defensible records of community-led funding choices at every stage.
Most technology in the social sector is designed in corporate offices and sold to communities. Communa was designed the other way around.
Development started with the people who are furthest from funding: the communities and organisations that existing systems routinely overlook. They didn't just provide "user feedback" on something we'd already designed. They shaped the fundamental architecture.
Enterprise security. Community values. And unlike large corporate platforms, every pound you spend on licensing directly supports community ownership and economic empowerment.
Find out more about Communa →Twenty First Century Solutions was founded by practitioners who've spent their careers inside the UK's funding infrastructure: at The National Lottery Community Fund, at community foundations, and in the community organisations that depend on funding decisions being made well. When we say we understand your operating context, we mean we've sat in your chair.
We're not academics theorising about participation, and we're not a technology company that's discovered the social sector. We're sector professionals who've delivered organisational transformation, programme design, and strategic reviews across the full range of social impact work.
Beyond our core team, we work with a curated network of specialists across facilitation, community development, evaluation, organisational development, and sector-specific expertise. You get the integrated approach of a single partner with the depth of a much larger network.
When you work with Twenty First Century Solutions, your investment directly supports community ownership and economic empowerment. For organisations with social value requirements in their procurement, this isn't an add-on — it's the structure of who we are.