Funding youth policy and advocacy grant

Given our overriding aim of policy better serving young people we still see a place for funding work that supports policy professionals to monitor the legislative landscape and mobilise the sector around imminent changes that would be detrimental to young people.

This is particularly likely to be relevant for rapidly evolving sectors that are concerned with young people facing the most extreme challenges or new or developing areas of policy attention: where urgent policy work is required that doesn’t allow for longer-term youth engagement and leadership work. So, alongside supporting young people to have their voice heard in policy creation, we will also continue to fund organisations that campaign for policy change and better outcomes on behalf of young people.

We currently have £100,000 per year allocated for organisations that campaign for policy change at a local or national level, with and on behalf of the most marginalised young people. Where the whole organisation exists for this purpose we will offer longer term unrestricted funding, and we are open to project funding for particular initiatives led by organisations with a more general remit.

We have two funding programmes:

Small grants: Smaller grants for organisations working in the frontline, often in the poorest parts of the South East region, providing vital support for the young people we seek to serve. We make decisions on these grants monthly.

Partnership grants: Long running, strategic partnerships with youth organisations where there is close alignment with our mission, they create outstanding impact for young people, and there is existing sector influence. These grants are larger. We make decisions on these grants three times a year, in March, July and November.

Both offer unrestricted funding for three years.

Exclusions:

For our regional funding, we only fund charities or registered CIC’s and do not fund unconstituted groups or individuals. We fund work with young people in the UK only. We do not fund the promotion of religion or major capital appeals. We prioritise partners who are based in the areas we seek to benefit: Berkshire, Hampshire, Sussex and Wiltshire.