Our policies and commitments

Due diligence policy

Grant making is a judgement that balances considerations between benefit and risk, to identify partnerships in line with our strategic priorities. We undertake due diligence on all our potential funding partners to understand and evaluate the main risks our partners are facing so we can help mitigate them (if we are the right people to do so); to evaluate the risks to Blagrave in funding, and to fulfil our duties for diligent grant making as required by the Charity Commission. 

Read our
Due Diligence Policy

Policy on paying for freelance work

This policy outlines how we pay people and organisations who provide professional services on a freelance contract at Blagrave. It applies to all individuals or registered companies on freelance contract, for example, advisers, facilitators, consultants, learning partners and speakers at our events. This policy also lays out the rates we pay for different types of service providers, and how we arrived at the set amounts.

Read our
Policy on Paying for Freelance Work and Pay Table - Jun 2025

Conflicts of interest policy

At Blagrave, we aim to be a transparent and fair organisation. We value lived experience alongside learned ‘professional’ experience. We strive towards being equitable by addressing how we can support team members to bring their whole selves in to their work as advisers, consultants, staff and Trustees, and this includes bringing their passion and insight. We balance this alongside our legal obligation to act in the best interests of the Trust, and in accordance with our governing document, and we carefully manage situations where there might be a conflict of interest.

Read our
Blagrave - Conflicts of Interest Policy - Feb 2024

Safer recruitment policy

Our commitment to safer recruitment and the use of background checks, including DBS checks, reflects our dedication to creating a safe environment for all.

We aim to balance the need for safety with the principles of fairness, respect, and inclusivity. We encourage applicants to engage with the process openly and without fear, knowing that their information will be handled confidentially and that decisions will be made with sensitivity and careful consideration of their individual circumstances.

For more information, contact the Designated Safeguarding Lead, Valeria Tavares at valeria@blagravetrust.org.

Read our
2025 Safer Recruitment Policy

Responding to a concern about a child’s welfare

We have a responsibility to promote the welfare of children and young people and keep them safe. As The Trust doesn’t work directly with children, this procedure mainly applies to grant partners who are directly working with children and are operating under Blagrave’s safeguarding arrangements as a condition of their funding.

Read our Child Safeguarding procedure

Responding to a safeguarding concern about an adult at risk

This procedure aims to provide clear guidance on how to report concerns about the safety of an adult that may be directly or indirectly impacted by our work. This procedure applies to anyone working on behalf of The Trust, including senior managers, trustees, employees, volunteers, freelance contractors, and grant partners who sit under our safeguarding arrangements.

Read our Adult Safeguarding procedure

Whistleblowing policy

We are committed to the highest standards of openness, probity and accountability. An important aspect of accountability and transparency is a mechanism to enable staff and other people associated with the Trust to voice concerns in a responsible and effective manner. Where an individual discovers information which they believe shows serious malpractice or wrongdoing within the organisation then this information should be disclosed internally without fear of reprisal, and there should be arrangements to enable this to be done independently of line management (although in relatively minor instances the line manager would be the appropriate person to be told).

Read our Whistleblowing policy

Diversity, equity and inclusion policy

At The Blagrave Trust we are dedicated to fostering a fair and just society. We view young people as powerful forces for change and are committed to creating inclusive spaces where their voices and leadership drive meaningful impact. This policy outlines our approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), going beyond compliance to set best practices that reflect our mission and values.

Read our
2025 Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Blagrave

Safeguarding and promoting the wellbeing of children and adults policy

The purpose of this policy is:

• To keep safe from harm, abuse and exploitation children and adults who are engaged in activity delivered by, or in partnership with, the Blagrave Trust, or by grant partners funded by The Blagrave Trust.
• To promote the wellbeing of children and adults who are engaged in activity delivered by, or in partnership with the Blagrave Trust or by partners funded by The Blagrave Trust.
• To promote the welfare and keep safe from harm all staff who work on behalf of Blagrave.
• To provide all those who work for or on behalf of the Trust with the overarching principles that underpin the Trust’s approach to Safeguarding.

This Policy applies to all employees, trustees, freelancers, advisers, or anyone else working or volunteering on behalf of the Trust; regardless of whether they work directly with children or adults at risk.

Read our
2026 Blagrave_Safeguarding policy

Investments policy

Blagrave holds investments in both property and financial markets. We believe we should use all of our resources, including our investments, in pursuit of our mission. As a result, in recent years we have moved approximately two-thirds of our investments to be held with Cazenove Capital and Rathbone Greenbank Investments.  The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a key lens through which both funds are assessed, and investment decisions categorised to ensure they are Avoiding harm, Benefiting society and Contributing to solutions.

As part of our commitment to ethical investing, in 2020 we launched the ‘ESG olympics’ with Friends Provident Foundation and the Joffe Charitable Trust, to identify the exemplar investors in this space. Following an open tender process Cazenove was selected and have launched the Casenove Sustainable Growth Fund. You can read more about the process here and the resulting report about the state of the sector of ESG here.

Our investment policy sets out our aspirations to ensure we apply our values across all our work.

Read our Investment Policy

Anti-fraud, bribery and corruption policy

The Blagrave Trust has a zero-tolerance stance towards fraud, bribery and corruption. The Trust requires all those receiving funding or representing the Trust, including its suppliers, grant recipients, partners, contractors, advisers, volunteers and agents, to act in accordance with our Fraud policy.

Read our Anti-Fraud, Bribery and Corruption Policy

Privacy and data protection policy

Your privacy is important, and we will not do anything to violate your trust. We collect information about visits to this site anonymously so that it cannot be associated with a particular user.

Read our Blagrave - Privacy and Data Protection Policy
 

Complaints policy

As a progressive funder we see it as essential we take an anti oppressive approach, treat everyone fairly, and practice transparency so that we can be held to account. We therefore take any complaints we receive very seriously.

You can use this policy to contact us if you think Blagrave has done something wrong, not provided a good enough service, or made a mistake.

Read our Complaints Policy

Commitment to transparency – how Blagrave works with advisers

In line with our value  of transparency, this document lays out how we work with advisers, how and how much we pay advisers. It also shares how we arrived at our decisions.

Read our Commitment to transparency - How we work with advisers

Commitment to safeguarding (due diligence)

A strong safeguarding culture is essential to all  that work with children and adults at risk. We are committed to ensuring we do this safely through robust checks and sharing good practice.

Read our Our Commitment to Safeguarding in our Funding
 

Commitment to partners

Our commitments statement sets out our commitment to our partners. It is a key mechanism for accountability in our work, and we welcome your comments and feedback.
 

Living wage funder commitment

We are a Living Wage Funder – that means that we are committed to both paying the Living Wage ourselves and supporting and enabling our charity partners to do the same.

Read our Our commitment as a living wage funder

Youth engagement and leadership commitment

We’re currently reviewing Youth engagement and leadership to ensure our policies remain up to date and we continue to centre young people in all that we do. Watch this space…
 

Our climate commitment

We've recently renewed our commitment to prioritise climate justice and action throughout our work.  Read more here. 

Our commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppression

This document sets out Blagrave’s core commitments to anti-racism and anti-oppression as we move into our new strategy in 2026.  It is grounded in humility, accountability, and ongoing learning.

Read our commitment to anti-racism and anti-oppression here. 

Rest Wellbeing and Care as Survival Strategies

Last year, we commissioned a storyteller to work with 10 Pathways Fund partners to produce content for the sector in their own words. Part of this content is a four-part thematic essay series for the sector, capturing the key themes that came up from partners.

For many of the Pathways Fund grant partners, the pressure to lead change while managing studies, work, families, ill health or caregiving had not been sustainable, and the risk of burnout never felt far away. Some were leading campaigns while still in school. Others were navigating severe health conditions.

The emotional labour of being ‘lived experience’ added an extra layer of intensity to already demanding roles. The Pathways Fund didn’t just recognise that reality — it responded to it directly with a more holistic funding offering, which partners praised time and time again.

Blagrave’s Wellbeing Grant was cited as one of the most meaningful forms of support across the cohort. It helped groups plan collective rest, fund personal therapy or recovery time, and embed a deeper culture of care.

“The Wellbeing Grant has allowed us to support the well-being of our staff properly — and that’s essential, because the work is stressful. Well-being has to be at the forefront of everything. If people don’t look after themselves, they can’t look after the work. The Pathways Fund has helped us take that seriously, and we’re super grateful for it.” — Treasure, Motivez

Moments of burnout weren’t always predictable or avoidable. Several partners reflected on the emotional toll of leading from lived experience, often while pioneering new approaches in challenging environments and figuring out their own limits in real time.

“The women’s prison I worked in recently was the hardest one I’ve ever done — because I shared some of the same experiences as the women there, and it hit different. So, being able to take a day afterwards, to access the well-being grant and do something for myself, that was everything.” — Nadine, Young Justice Advisors

Blagrave’s support offering felt especially crucial for the younger leaders within the cohort. Many were still in education, juggling activism with coursework, internships, part-time jobs, and struggling with increasing living costs.

“With the Wellbeing Grant in particular, just having the opportunity to do things I wouldn’t normally do because I couldn’t afford it, either financially or time-wise, really made a difference. Being able to access resources for myself that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise genuinely impacted the work I could do. I was in a better place, so I could actually do more.” — Beau, Choked Up

“I think the Wellbeing Grant really makes you pause and think carefully about what you need and that’s important. Especially with the kind of work we’re doing, and having a degree to do at the same time, being able to have that downtime is super important.” — Ava, Not A Trend

Across the board, partners described Blagrave’s relationship-based approach as a key source of stability. Quarterly check-ins with the Youth Led Change Manager felt less like funder monitoring, and more like mentorship, supporting not just the work, but the people behind it.

“The catch-ups I have with Blagrave’s Youth Led Change Manager really help me think through a lot of the work we’re doing and some of the issues I might be facing individually within that. They’ve helped me process things and figure out the best way to approach challenges. Honestly, the whole support package has been amazing.” — Treasure, Motivez

“It’s a very human approach. Being able to sit and be open and honest with Blagrave’s Youth Led Change Manager about what’s happened, how I’m feeling, why something isn’t going to work. That’s made a big difference. I’ve shared things with him that I haven’t shared with other funders, for lots of reasons. I think part of it is that Blagrave’s Youth Led Change Manager’s also a young person and he gets it in a way that others don’t.” — Nadine, Young Justice Advisors

External research confirms the heightened vulnerability among young changemakers. According to Mental Health UK’s 2025 Burnout Report, over one in three UK adults reported experiencing high or extreme stress ‘always’ or ‘often’ in the past year — but 18–24-year-olds were the most likely to need time off work due to poor mental health caused by stress. They were also the least likely to feel comfortable opening up to a manager about it, with comfort levels dropping from 75% to just 56% in the past year.

In this context, the support Blagrave offered had to be more than financial. It had to be human and honour the climate that young people are working within. The cohort wholeheartedly agreed.

“If you don’t have the means to support yourself or the people you’re working with, the internal workings of a campaign or organisation will just crumble. All the effort that’s gone into supporting the work can end up being in vain if the well-being of the campaigners isn’t taken seriously. Just making sure that the people doing the work are okay, in relation to everything else going on in the world. That’s really, really important.” — Beau, Choked Up

Even small moments for rest and well-being had big effects on partners. The chance to fund collective care like retreats, reflection time, or creative well-being, allowed teams to reconnect not just with each other, but with the purpose behind their work.

“The Wellbeing Grant made a huge difference. It meant we could have our first in-person well-being retreat. That was the first time we truly came together as a collective, and it helped us grow not only in connection but also in strategy. We talked a lot about what each of us needs to keep going as individuals, and how we can work better together. It helped us understand each other’s ways of working, and that’s been really important.” — Olamide, Halo Collective

Burnout will always be a risk in youth-led change. But it shouldn’t be inevitable. By making care central and not conditional, the Pathways Fund helped groups stay in the work, grow in it, and return to it with more strength, not less.

Fighting to be Seen and Heard

Last year, we commissioned a storyteller to work with 10 Pathways Fund partners to produce content for the sector in their own words. Part of this content is a four-part thematic essay series for the sector, capturing the key themes that came up from partners.

One of the clearest tensions to emerge across these interviews was the gap between what funders say they want, such as youth-led, lived experience-driven, equity-focused work, and what they actually resource. The Pathways Fund grant partners weren’t short on ambition or credibility. What they lacked was legitimacy in the eyes of the institutions around them. Many described feeling like they were constantly trying to prove they belonged, and often to people with far less proximity to the issues they were working on.

With public and political backlash growing in areas like climate justice, DEI, trans rights and care reform, that work has become even harder. Several partners told us they felt their organisations were now seen as “risky” simply because they refused to soften their politics or approach.

“It’s still challenging to be taken seriously as a young person in a lot of the rooms we’re in — especially in policy spaces, but even in community spaces too. People can be dismissive of what we’re saying, because we’re not coming at this as experts on air pollution. We’re just speaking from our own lived experiences — and often that gets dismissed.” — Anjali, Choked Up

For many, legitimacy felt it was being gatekept because they weren’t more formal structures. Almost half the cohort needed a fiscal host to access their Pathways Fund grant. While Blagrave welcomed and supported this model, most funders still seem to expect a board, a business bank account, and a multi-year track record, even from groups that are youth-led, newly formed, and community oriented.

“I really appreciate that using Social Change Nest as a fiscal host means we can still access the funding. I know they use it because everything is transparent — it’s clear what’s being paid out and where it’s going. That gives funders confidence, which they often only feel when working with charities. We’re aligned on a lot of those values, but we can’t do the work of being a charity. And honestly, we’re not entirely comfortable with the restrictions — We don’t want to censor our artists, because they certainly have a lot to complain about.” — Elle, Radical Body Arts

The effort it takes to “look fundable” was often underestimated. Partners described setting up payroll systems, establishing policies, writing privacy statements and building websites — all while juggling other jobs, studies or caring responsibilities.

“We didn’t even have our own domain name email addresses — in 2022, we were still using Hotmail and Outlook. And without those kinds of things, it’s really hard to be seen as credible. We were already at risk of not being taken seriously just by being youth-led and a bit newer, and that made it even harder.” — Issy, Our Streets Now

Even when legitimacy was hard-won, some partners found themselves excluded from funding pots meant to support the very communities they come from.

“Established funders say they want to fund care-experienced work — but they only seem to fund other big, established organisations. And I’m like, great, you’re giving money to a charity that’s been around for 20 years instead of one that’s fully care-experienced and only a few years old. It feels like the opposite of what they say they’re trying to do.” — Isabelle, Care Experienced Movement

This experience was echoed by other partners too. “We once applied to a national funder and were told, ‘We fund risky organisations, but you’re too risky.’ It felt personal. Five years later, we’ve secured hundreds of thousands in funding and proved that early belief pays off.” — Avocados Impact

This lack of recognition had emotional costs, too. Several partners described how being the only person of colour, the only disabled person, or the only lived expert in the room came with a quiet exhaustion — not just of being under scrutiny, but of constantly having to translate, explain or justify their presence.

“It’s not really something anyone else can fix, but the imposter syndrome is real. And sometimes it grows into something more like frustration, like being the only people in the room who look like us. Being surrounded by people who don’t have to relate to our experiences…it just gets tiring.” — Beau, Choked Up

“We were like, the only people of colour and the only young people who were actually campaigning on this issue. And even in spaces about clean air, we’re constantly having to explain why we belong there.” — Anjali, Choked Up

Some groups spoke about actively being excluded from the systems they were trying to improve — particularly when that work came with challenging the norm.

“We’ve tried working with local authorities, but they often just ignore our emails. Even though we’re care-experienced and grew up in that system, if you don’t already have a connection, it’s hard to even get in the room. And I get it — we’re basically going in and saying, ‘Hi, what you’re doing isn’t working.’ That’s hard for people to hear.” — Isabelle, Care Experienced Movement

At the same time, the external landscape is shifting. Many of the issues Pathways partners work on — climate, care, anti-racism, gender, access — are becoming politically contested in ways that makes their work more urgent but also more precarious.

“There are new barriers that have come up since we’ve been on the programme. It’s about funders, corporates and different bodies that have taken their focus away, or even cancelled their initiatives around DE&I… even when we have qualified young people, they’re still overlooked because of certain buckets they may or may not fall into.” — Treasure, Motivez

“When we started, anti-racism was everywhere, and now we’re in a bit of a dip period… we kind of missed it, and it’s been hard trying to rebuild that momentum.” — Ava, Not a Trend

These aren’t just isolated experiences. They reveal a sector-wide tension: youth-led groups are often invited to speak, to contribute lived experience, or to appear on panels — but rarely to lead. Too often, they are brought into conversations when their identities or issues are momentarily “hot topics,” rather than as long-term partners in building sustained movements. This creates a cycle of short-term visibility without lasting support, leaving many groups — and the communities they serve — feeling that their stories are valued, but their solutions are not.

“It can feel like a bit of a tick-box exercise at times, I think. For example, because of the Care Review happening in England, there’s suddenly a lot of interest in that space. And I just think, you’re probably only funding that because the government’s looking into changing it right now. I’m always really cautious of that.” — Isabelle Kirkham, Care Experienced Movement

“We’ve come across ‘accessible’ opportunities that just…aren’t. Like a residency for disabled artists that had no roads nearby, no phone signal, and a 30-minute pedal bike ride to the nearest shop. If even one disabled person had been in the room when that was being planned, they’d have known it was never going to work.” — Elle, Radical Body Arts

What partners asked for from funders was simple: more involvement from the start and more representative funding. They don’t just want to be case studies; they want to be co-creators too.

“In the same way that many funders will ask us how we involve the people we’re targeting in the design of our work, the same should be done by them. Funders need to involve the organisations they want to support in the design of the solutions they’re implementing. That’s how you get it right — from reporting requirements, to support packages, to what’s actually needed.” — Treasure, Motivez

This is what made the Pathways Fund different. Partners described Blagrave as a funder who didn’t demand perfection, polish, or performative pain. Instead, it backed boldness. It supported honesty. And it recognised that legitimacy doesn’t always come in a grant-ready package.

“Blagrave has all their principles really bang on. They’re bold, they encourage organisations to be bold too, and they hold strong social justice values that lean towards the more radical side of changemaking. It just feels like there are so many funders who get it all wrong — who are honestly just kind of icky in the way they do things. I almost feel like Blagrave empowers us to be really brave. Anything radical we put out there isn’t going to scare them — it’s encouraged.” — Issy, Our Streets Now

The Freedom to Fail: Why flexibility is necessary

Last year, we commissioned a storyteller to work with 10 Pathways Fund partners to produce content for the sector in their own words. Part of this content is a four-part thematic essay series for the sector, capturing the key themes that came up from partners.

Not every plan works. Not every programme ends the way it was imagined. But in the Pathways Fund, change, even when unexpected, wasn’t seen as failure. It was seen as an opportunity to learn and adapt.

For almost every grant partner, the ability to ‘fail’, restructure, and pivot mid-programme was essential. Some groups shifted strategy. Others scaled back. Some changed leadership. Instead of being punitive or withdrawing support, many in the cohort said that Blagrave leaned in and listened to what was happening, and more importantly, why it was happening.

“I feel like they trust us to just try things out. If something hasn’t gone to plan, they’ve never been like, ‘How dare you, we’re pulling the funding.’ It’s more like, ‘That’s okay, this is what happens when you’re starting out.’ And that’s been really reassuring.” — Isabelle, Care Experienced Movement

That flexibility changed how partners approached their work. A lot spoke about how other funding pots tied them to fixed KPIs, regardless of whether those goals still made sense for the issue they were working on, and that they didn’t feel like they could be fully transparent with them.

“Some funders have this process where every three months you have to update them on X, Y, Z. It’s process-based, very tick-box. And even though I have positive relationships with our funders, I never felt like I could speak to them the same way I do with Blagrave.” — Nadine, Young Justice Advisors

This flexible approach not only included how partners could choose to spend their money, but also when. Blagrave itself recognised that many groups do not spend their grant instalment within 12 months and decided to be flexible about when instalment payments are approved and paid.

This flexibility was noted by Our Streets Now as being extremely helpful when they were navigating a tricky transition period after an organisational restructure.

“In year two, we shifted our grant instalment, just to give us a bit more time to get our impact reporting and budget sorted, because we’d dropped the ball slightly with all the transitions happening. Blagrave was really flexible about it, which was great. I came into the Pathways Fund around that time and took over the relationship, so we just needed a bit more time with everything — and they gave us that.” — Issy, Our Streets Now

For some, their early organisational plans simply weren’t the right ones for their capacity. Not A Trend, for instance, originally planned to deliver a month-long schools-based programme, but came to realise it wasn’t sustainable or reflective of what they actually wanted to do, and Blagrave understood this.

“Our plan was to launch More Than a Month, a ready-made programme we’d deliver in schools. But pretty early on, we realised it just wasn’t sustainable, and it didn’t feel true to what we were actually trying to change. It was too traditional, too programme-heavy. We’ve always been consistent in our framework of the three Cs – conduct, culture and curriculum – but how we deliver that has shifted a lot. We now work with teacher training courses, and we’re moving into public education too. Since starting out, that idea of creating more lifelong learning opportunities has become a lot more important to us.” — Ava, Not A Trend

After a lot of trial and error, Radical Body Arts also pivoted its strategy and valued the support it received as it navigated those changes.

“There were moments where we thought, ‘Oh my God, why isn’t this working?’ We asked ourselves, ‘Are we doing enough? Are we spending the money in the best way? Are we moving fast enough?’ We kept hitting barriers and having to course-correct, like, ‘Not that way, try another route.’ It meant that we didn’t always achieve what we originally set out to do or meet every timeline we had in mind. But honestly, I’d say this has been an incredibly educational experience about working in this sector as a disabled-led company and is really, really useful. I think most people can learn from that.” — Elle, Radical Body Arts

This reframing of failure as learning is significant for younger leaders who are navigating changing political landscapes. The Halo Collective revised its strategy twice this year — and plans to again.

“When your strategy is based on policy work, and the government’s constantly shifting, you have to adapt fast. But how do you do that without derailing the work you’re already doing? That kind of constant change is something we’re still learning to navigate, especially with things like bills and policy deadlines that are totally outside our control. And while the funding has given us more capacity and space to respond, it also shifts internal dynamics.” — Olamide, Halo Collective

Failure, in the Pathways Fund context, wasn’t something to fear. It was part of the process. And when the process is trusted, the learning deepens, the work strengthens, and the people behind the work feel supported to stay in the game.

Radical Body Arts echoed that sentiment — especially as a disabled-led organisation working to a completely different rhythm than most of the sector.

“A lot of the time, growth has looked like failure. It’s realising something isn’t for us, and that we need to go about things a different way. But that’s just the reality of being a disabled-led company. We can’t work the way a non-disabled organisation does, our goals and timelines need to be different. There were check-ins where we hadn’t done what we hoped and where I’d say, ‘No, we haven’t done that yet.’ Some things just didn’t work. But it’s helped us narrow in on what we can do sustainably and are going to work on.” — Elle, Radical Body Arts

Where we stand: reflections on the UK non profit sector

At Blagrave, we spend a lot of time listening – to young people, to partners, and to others working across the non-profit sector. Over time, their honesty has invited us to hold complex questions and sit with the tensions in the system, as well as the contradictions in our own practices. It hasn’t always been easy, but it has been necessary.

Where We Stand is a three-part video series that offers an honest, thoughtful and compassionate reflection on the UK’s non-profit sector. Rooted in the insights of those working directly with and within communities, it aims not to prescribe solutions but to surface truths, recognise challenges and open space for meaningful conversation.

It is an opportunity for our partners to express what they’re feeling, seeing and navigating as we listen closely to the truths they’re holding.

Each video acts as a prompt for reflection. We hope it creates space – for curiosity, recognition, accountability and deeper dialogue.

Episode one: Young people and youth work

Young people today are growing up amid financial insecurity, rising mental health challenges and rapid digital change. One in four children lives in poverty, while access to youth services and safe community spaces continues to shrink.

This episode brings forward perspectives from those closest to these realities, exploring what it feels like to grow up in this context and to work within a youth sector shaped by long-term cuts. The conversation highlights what is being lost when support is reduced just as need intensifies.

Reflection questions:

• What becomes possible when young people have power over the spaces and resources in their communities?
• What does it look like to build support systems that don’t disappear when funding cycles end?

Watch episode one on YouTube: 

Episode two: Today’s Reality for Youth Charities

Charities across the UK are operating in increasingly difficult conditions. Income is falling, costs are rising, and demand for services continues to grow. After years of austerity, many organisations have become lifelines – stepping in where public systems no longer reach.

In this episode, trusted voices working in the youth sector share what this reality looks like on the ground, and what it means for young people who rely on these services. The conversation surfaces the pressures charities are under, the ways organisations are adapting, and the gaps that continue to affect young people’s lives.

Reflection questions:

• What does it mean to centre young people’s needs in a sector stretched to its limits?
• What feels uncomfortable or familiar about some of the issues raised?

Watch episode two on YouTube: 

Episode three: Philanthropy Today

Philanthropy has positioned itself as a force for tackling inequality and shaping social progress. Yet the scale and urgency of today’s challenges raise difficult questions about whether existing models can meaningfully respond to today’s realities.

In this final episode, voices from across the sector reflect on philanthropy’s role at this moment – including its power, pace and accountability. The discussion invites reflection on whether approaches shaped in a very different social and economic context are still fit for purpose, and what might need to shift in response to systemic injustice.

Reflection questions:

• Is philanthropy moving at the pace this moment demands?
• Who gets to shape funding decisions – and who doesn’t?
• What would it mean to rethink power, not just redistribute money?

Watch episode three on YouTube:

The Pathway from Project to Organisation

Last year, we commissioned a storyteller to work with 10 Pathways Fund partners to produce content for the sector in their own words. Part of this content is a four-part thematic essay series for the sector, capturing the key themes that came up from partners.

When Blagrave was introduced to the Pathways Fund grant partners, they were already addressing their issues and working within their communities. They had a vision, momentum, and deep-rooted community trust. But few had formal infrastructure, or what they described as “legitimacy.” No payroll systems. No safeguarding policies. No official email addresses. Many didn’t even consider themselves proper “organisations,” but more as projects.

“When we first started, we weren’t running frequent programs, but now we’ve been able to focus on our delivery work without the heavy research element. We’re reflecting on our own experiences of the justice system and asking how we can directly do more for those in prison.” — Nadine, Young Justice Advisors

That began to change for Young Justice Advisors and others in the cohort due to the investment and support they received from the Pathways Fund. Multi-year core grants of £60–90k over three years gave these youth-led collectives time and encouragement to pause, reflect, and define what organisational sustainability and growth could actually look like for them.

“The Pathways Fund meant we had some consistency, some grounding. For me, growing as an organisation means having funders who want to support us and stick with us.” — Isabelle, Care Experienced Movement

Other partners, like Avocados Impact, used the funding to settle into a physical space. “Securing the Pathways Fund meant we could move into our own space in Exeter — much more central and accessible. That made a huge difference. More young people could reach us, and we could host meetings with professionals and partners in a proper space of our own.”

For Not A Trend, early funding meant finally being able to hire paid staff.

“I started this when I was 15, and now to be paid for the work, to have two additional team members, and to be entrusted with £60,000 of funding overall — it’s kind of crazy.” — Ava, Not A Trend

For Choked Up, funding meant being able to continue their work without sacrificing education or financial stability.

“Before receiving any grants, we were essentially just working for free, which comes with a lot of implications, especially when you’ve also got commitments like education or jobs to juggle. The grants made our work so much more accessible. We could actually do it alongside our degrees.” — Beau, Choked Up

Crucially, the Pathways Fund allowed groups to slow down without feeling like they were falling behind. Blagrave recognises that external activity dips in the first 6–18 months on the programme as groups “strengthen their internal organisation,” and sees this as a natural part of the development of an organisation. That sentiment was echoed in the interviews with the Pathways Fund grant partners.

For Our Streets Now, the Pathways Fund marked their transition into a CIC, complete with a board, structure, and strategic direction.

“In that first year, growth was really about getting more established — building up our resources and structure so we could manage the operational and governance side of being an organisation with confidence. That’s had a big impact, especially when it comes to contract delivery, like being able to work with local authorities. But really, it helped across everything.” — Issy, Our Streets Now

Many partners spoke about the clarity that came with more financial stability. With space to reflect, several redefined what structure and growth for their organisation meant in reality.

For Halo Collective, the security of the Pathways Fund core grant meant aligning their internal ways of working and structure to how they were being perceived externally.

“The funding helped us to move from what used to be perfect chaos into something more structured. People from the outside often tell us how strong our campaign is, but internally, we were often just trying to keep it together. That structure and accountability have been essential.” — Olamide, Halo

For Radical Body Arts, that meant scaling back and being more singular in their approach.

“At first, we were focused on getting into rooms and pitching performances to other organisations. But over time, we realised how difficult it was to safeguard both the artists and ourselves, given all the access barriers still in place. So, we brought in two wonderful team members and started creating our own accessible arts opportunities. We moved from chasing the big gigs to building smaller ones that felt safer and gave us the space to support the artists we work with properly.” — Elle, Radical Body Arts

One tool that supported this internal evolution was the Organisational Development Budget, a quieter element of the programme but one that proved transformative for many. While core funding enabled teams to hire or stabilise their operations, the Organisational Development Budget helped them think deeper about how their groups should function in the long run, and gave them the space and access to expertise to act on that.

For Motivez, it meant addressing issues that had previously slowed down their growth.

“Through the Organisational Development Budget, we’ve been able to access some external expertise, especially around operations, which is my area. We had a consultant working with us for about six or seven months, helping us implement a few key processes and systems, particularly to fix our old chaos. That support has helped us get into a much better place, actually, to achieve the goals we set out to achieve.” — Treasure, Motivez

Not A Trend used the Organisational Development Budget to sharpen their strategy and focus not just on what they were delivering, but also on how and why.

“I keep coming back to strategy, but I didn’t realise how important it was until we had the support to actually focus on it. Thanks to the Organisational Development Budget, we’ve been able to work with a contractor who’s supported us from the start, allowing us to have a crucial strategy day with her. It also means we can do another one this year, this time focusing on outreach. That kind of continuity and capacity-building has been a big deal for us.” — Ava, Not A Trend

For The Care Experienced Movement, it enabled access to critical training that otherwise wouldn’t have been affordable.

“With the Organisational Development Budget, it’s been amazing to actually identify where we need support and then go to Blagrave and say, ‘I’d love to do some DSL [Designated Safeguarding Lead] training’ — and they just said, ‘Yes, this fund can cover that.’ We didn’t have to dip into our core grant or stress about where to find the money. That kind of support is rare — no other funders I know of do that. It shows that Blagrave really understands what the sector needs.” — Isabelle, Care Experienced Movement

Several partners said that simply having dedicated budgets for both development and well-being validated the time and energy required to build behind the scenes — the often-invisible work that makes visible impact possible.

“The Organisational Development Budget and Wellbeing Grant were great because they nudged us to invest in areas we might have otherwise overlooked. Blagrave’s Youth Led Change Manager’s advice on giving recommendations and linking us into organisations who can support us was also really helpful.” — Our Streets Now

This level of trust and support from Blagrave, allowing grant partners to grow sideways, creatively, or slowly, felt rare to the Pathways Fund grant partners compared to their other experiences with the funding world. It was mentioned time and again by grant partners as something that not only helped them internally but also reflected in the impact they’re making externally.

Sometimes that impact is sector-shaping, like Radical Body Arts’ research into how people with disabilities can interact with the arts.

“The research we’ve done recently has also uncovered statistics about disability that we’ve never seen anywhere else. Thanks to the support we’ve had, we’ve been able to really dig into what is a very tricky landscape — and explore what actually makes working in the arts truly accessible and considerate.” — Elle, Radical Body Arts

Sometimes that impact is about shifting attitudes and behaviours, such as the work Our Streets Now delivers in schools. “I’m always surprised by how new our information is to the people we train — and how surprised they are by it. I did an interview with an Assistant Head Teacher we’ve worked with for about two years, and she told me that what really changed after our training was that the staff’s whole perspective had shifted.

The line of what’s considered normal or acceptable behaviour had moved. There used to be a real hesitancy to label things as misogyny or sexual harassment — but now there’s far more willingness to call it what it is.” — Issy, Our Streets Now

And sometimes, that impact was about how the grant partners felt about themselves and their growth as campaigners.

“I think because there’s so much investment in us as people, as well as in our campaign, it’s really made me think more about my own personal growth, and how the campaign affects that, and how campaigning has helped me grow as an individual.” — Anjali, Choked Up

“I think being able to come out as not necessarily more serious campaigners, but campaigners who feel like we know what we’re doing, in a way that feels a lot more secure, that’s something I’ve definitely noticed since being on the programme.” — Beau, Choked Up

What was clear across all the interviews was that growth didn’t follow a single path. It depended on where each group started, what they were navigating outside the work, and how much space they had to find their own rhythm. Some needed time to scale. Others needed time to stop. But all needed the chance to mature on their own terms. By offering flexible, multi-year support, and trusting in the partners, the Pathways Fund has supported partners to build foundations for change.

Learning from the first three years of the Pathways Fund

Across the country, young people are leading some of the most imaginative and necessary work to tackle injustice. Yet too often, their ideas stall for lack of support at the moment they need stability, time and long-term belief. At Blagrave, we created the Pathways Fund to change that.

Launched in 2023, the Pathways Fund grew out of the pilot of Challenge and Change – our first youth-led funding programme that backs young people directly with one year of funding of up to £10,000. At the end of the year, when several partners were reaching a crucial tipping point in their development and needed the next step, we listened. They needed multi-year core funding, wellbeing support, organisational development and a relationship with funders built on trust rather than scrutiny. So we built a model around exactly that.

Over the past three years, the Pathways Fund has supported 20 youth-led organisations with long-term, flexible support of £20,000–£30,000 per year along with a significant support offer.

In April, we commissioned a storyteller to work with 10 Pathways Fund partners to produce storytelling content — both for their own use and for the programme. Part of this content is the Pathways Fund Impact Report: A Route for Youth Led Change to Flourish. In this blog we are sharing some of the learning we’ve gathered along the way.

A clear “triple-line benefit”

The Pathways Fund delivers a triple-line benefit: leadership development, tackling systemic injustice and reshaping civil society.

1. Leadership Development

Young founders have evolved into confident, strategic leaders, building sustainable organisations grounded in care, courage and collaboration. Many have moved from working alone to leading teams, developing governance and influencing policy spaces once closed to them.

2. Tackling Social Injustice

Every partner is challenging systemic inequality — from environmental justice and migrant rights to racial equity, gender reform and inclusive arts. Their work spans influencing policy and legislation, reframing harmful narratives, creating safe community spaces and equipping others through education. From Our Streets Now’s role in passing the Protection from Sex-Based Harassment Act to the Halo Code’s adoption in over 1,000 schools, their collective impact shows how youth-led organising delivers measurable change.

3. Reshaping Civil Society

Together, these organisations are building the foundations of a more representative and just sector – one that trusts young, lived-experience leaders to define priorities and shape solutions. The Fund’s legacy lies not just in the organisations it has grown, but in the ecosystem it is helping to build – one where power, resources and leadership are with those rooted in their community.

Learning and Themes

There are eight key learnings and themes coming out of the report:

1. The jump from project to organisation takes time
2. Centre wellbeing and care
3. Build flexibility into your grant processes
4. Funding movement building requires a different approach
5. Invest in building trusting relationships
6. Impact looks different and reporting should reflect this
7. Embed access and inclusion
8. Funders must model the change they see

Read more reflections and analysis of these themes in the Pathways Fund Impact Report.

Looking Ahead

The Pathways Fund has grown far beyond its pilot phase: through multi-year, trust-based investment and a significant support offer, it has supported a generation of young changemakers who are tackling injustice, developing as leaders and reshaping civil society.

This report demonstrates the value of long-term, flexible, trust-based investment in youth and lived-experience-led organisations. The programme is filling a critical gap between early-stage seed funding and mainstream philanthropy, offering young leaders the time, confidence and infrastructure to embed lasting change.

As we move forward, we’ll continue to embed this learning and evolve our approach. This will include appointing an advisory panel of previous grant partners in 2026 to shape the next iteration of the Pathways Fund, which is locked into our upcoming strategy. Watch this space!

The Journey to Youth Led Change: a review of our 2022–2025 strategy

In 2021, following a period of significant societal change that covered Covid and the Black Lives Matter movement, we at Blagrave prepared to develop our first-ever strategy. It built on the learning developed through our first foray into policy change funding, and the first iteration of Challenge and Change, our programme funding individual young changemakers, in 2020. In consultation with the staff team, young people and external advisers, we developed a strategy that launched in 2022, covering the period until 2026.

It also coincided with the donation of £1m per year for five years from the Nineteen Eighty-Nine Charitable Trust, which would span the period 2021–2026, enabling us to significantly increase our grantmaking resource. Our resulting ambitious new strategy held a new mission:

To bring lasting change to the lives of young people; investing in them as powerful forces for change and acting upon their right to be heard in pursuit of a fair and just society.

This mission was to be delivered through three objectives:

1. Increasing civil society’s accountability to young people
2. Investing in young people to create change
3. Investing in better youth policy

This divided our work into three distinct areas, but something we’ve learned through this strategy review process — and will be taking into our new strategy — is that it’s hard to divide up social change efforts so neatly. If you truly want to make change happen, pressure needs to be applied at all different points simultaneously for a system to change.

We commissioned Natasha Adams and Joe Derry Hall to review our strategy against these goals and pull out learning like this.

Read their insights here:
https://www.blagravetrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Strategy-Review-2022-2025_-The-journey-towards-youth-led-change-FINAL.pdf

Our work is relationship-based, so much of the golden information and learning we gleaned over this period was through informal conversations. We also learned that too much of the strategy’s implementation was based on our team’s individual passions and interests; it was too easy to lose key learning or relationships. We learned that standardising and streamlining processes is key for effective implementation.

Headlines on each of our three key objectives

On funding organisations that serve young people

Successes

- Through the Listening Fund and through our Regional Programme we made a clear impact on the way organisations we fund listen and respond to young people, by making it part of the criteria for funding.
- We also had a significant impact on other funders, helping to ensure funders listen to young people and to the organisations they support.
- The way we funded — long term, and based on trust — increased the value of our support for our partners.
- We brought about many opportunities for collaboration, with and between partners, leading to a more collaborative sector.

What didn’t work

- We missed meeting the needs of young people facing the greatest barriers by focusing our funding on established organisations and across our wide South East of England region.

What we’re taking to the new strategy

- The importance of the way we fund — long term and non-bureaucratic.
- The knowledge of how to encourage and support true collaboration.

On funding young people directly

Successes

- We saw that our theory of funding worked – changemakers who received their first grant from us through Challenge and Change went on through our Pathways Fund to attain large-scale funding from other funders and sustain as established organisations.
- We listened to the young people we funded, understanding what support they need alongside their grant and giving them the freedom to control how their support is determined.
- Through modelling this, we had a huge impact on other funders’ practice so that other funders started listening to young people directly. We learned how important our in-person events are for connecting changemakers.

What didn’t work

- Some of our early programmes with the goal of sharing power, such as the Opportunity Fund, actually didn’t share power at all as we tried to micromanage the way young people were supported.
- Also, most of our network remains in London – potentially this means the same theory of change won’t apply in different places, and we have yet to test this.

What we’re taking into the new strategy

- Young people need significant non-financial support as well as a grant to thrive, including development/capacity building, wellbeing and a peer network.
- We have a better understanding of our grant manager roles, which cross grant management, youth work and capacity-building support.
- A greater understanding of the stages a young changemaker goes through, and we are holding a live question to see how this applies in different areas.
- We’re also bringing an expanded understanding of what system change looks like, which includes community-led service delivery.

On funding change in youth policy

Successes

- Long-term funding for organisations putting youth voice at the centre of policymaking led to some significant wins.
- Funding organisations to do policy change proved more successful than trying to do it ourselves.
- Our learning programme, funding a broad cohort, deepened our understanding of what skills and resources organisations need to do this work well.

What didn’t work

- We didn’t have the capacity or resources needed to do policy change work well, especially not at a national level.
- As we’re not experts in any particular theme or issue area, we weren’t able to play much of a role within other collaborations or partnerships.
- Focusing on getting young people involved in democracy didn’t fit with our developing view of how system change actually happens.

What we’re taking into the new strategy

By funding young people with experience of, or who are challenging, injustice directly, we will be funding those leaders who really understand the issues to create change in ways they determine.

Conclusion

At the end of this strategy period, I’m proud to look back and pinpoint our funding as the initial seed of change for individual young people, collectives and groups.

Read the review findings here:
https://www.blagravetrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Strategy-Review-2022-2025_-The-journey-towards-youth-led-change-FINAL.pdf

At the start of the strategy we aimed to create change at three levels: for individual young people, for the charities that serve them and in policy and legislation. What we learned was that by empowering and trusting changemakers directly, we can achieve serious systemic change at all three levels and beyond. This review demonstrates how much we have learned about funding young changemakers well.

Our future strategy will build up young people’s power and capacity to create change, now and for future generations.

Tessa Hibbert
Head of Grants

Strengthening our support for young changemakers: introducing the pipelines and pathways research

Context

Over the past five years, our work to support young changemakers has grown at a remarkable pace. When we launched our 2022–26 strategy, it was a new — and intentional — step forward in investing in young people as powerful forces for change.

Building on the success of the original Challenge and Change pilot, during our current strategy period we have expanded our funding and support to young changemakers rapidly – driven by the needs, ambitions and lived experience of the young people we work alongside. As this work developed, we knew it was time to pause, reflect and deepen our understanding. How do young changemakers grow? What do they need at different points in their journey? And how can we ensure our programmes, language and support evolve with them?

Introduction

To help answer these questions, in mid-2024 we commissioned the Pipelines and Pathways Research Project, a participatory research project to better understand young changemakers’ journeys and support needs. The research team delivered their final report in late October 2024, and over the past year we have been working through its rich findings, embedding the learning across our programmes and into our upcoming 2026 strategy.

The project aimed to do three key things:

1. Refresh and strengthen our terminology for describing different stages of a young changemaker’s development.
2. Deepen our understanding of what changemakers need at each stage of their journey.
3. Help us align and improve our programme offer, ensuring clearer progression pathways and more intentional support.

The result is a comprehensive piece of work that challenges some of our existing assumptions and offers practical tools we can adopt immediately.

Learning

The Pipelines and Pathways research provided our clearest picture yet of what it really means to grow as a young changemaker — and what it takes to support that journey well.

1. Changemaker journeys are non-linear, iterative and deeply personal

No two young changemakers follow the same path. Rather than a simple linear progression, the research found four recurring “cycles” that young people move in and out of as their confidence, experience and ambitions evolve. These cycles can repeat, overlap or stall — and each is a valid destination in itself.

2. Eight interconnected needs shape every journey

The research identified eight core needs — personal and organisational — that determine whether young changemakers can sustain their work. These include relationships, mental health, financial health, confidence and identity, internal operations, resources and financial management, networks and influence, and team and leadership. When any one of these needs is neglected, burnout or the collapse of an idea becomes more likely.

3. Lived experience drives change, but can also create vulnerability

Every journey begins in personal experience of injustice — but the relationship to that experience changes over time. Changemakers often move from speaking from the “wound” to speaking from the “scar”, developing strategies to harness experience without being overwhelmed by it. This has implications for when and how we step in with support.

4. Strong relationships remain the single most valued form of support

Young people consistently described Blagrave’s relational approach — trust, care and a single point of contact — as transformative. However, the report also highlights that relationship-centred support alone isn’t enough. We must complement this with a more diverse, intentional set of support tools that meet varying needs across the journey.

5. Our existing programme language and structure don’t match the nuance of real journeys

The research confirms that the previous “aspiring–emergent–established” terminology oversimplified the complexity of changemaker growth. A more detailed framework will help us design clearer pathways and avoid unintentional gaps or duplication across programmes.

6. Progression is not only about funding — it’s about infrastructure, time and the ecosystem

Changemakers often lack what the wider sector takes for granted: physical space, operational infrastructure, consistent teams and networks that open doors. They also face external pressures — insecure housing, low pay and systemic discrimination — that affect their ability to make change. The research encourages us to see our role not only in funding but in building the ecosystem around young people.

7. Our programmes each support only part of the journey — and need clearer definition and targeting

Challenge and Change naturally aligns with supporting people at an earlier stage than the Pathways Fund. The research urges us to clarify these roles and minimise assumptions about linear progression — for example, that all Challenge and Change partners must or should transition to the Pathways Fund — and clarifies our assumption that changemaker needs at different stages of the journey require distinct types of support.

8. We need to be explicit about who we reach and who we miss

Our ambition to support young people with lived experience of injustice is broad — but current pipelines skew towards those with access to youth organisations that support their development as changemakers, often in urban centres. The research challenged us to confront gaps in representation — for example disability justice, LGBTQ+ and rural communities — and to diversify our reach intentionally.

What we are taking forward

Over 2025, we have been digesting and implementing the findings, and we have made three core changes to our work:

1. Embedding the “changemaker needs wheel”

We have refined the research’s eight needs into a 10-part needs wheel – a tool that helps us ensure our programmes are meeting the needs of the changemakers they aim to support. This will be used by programme managers as a framework to map our support toolkit against, as well as by youth-led partners to reflect on their development — both personally and organisationally — at key points. Over time, this will also help us understand the wider impact of our programmes beyond funding alone.

2. Updating our language and terminology

We have used the research findings, working with our youth-led partners, to create a five-stage framework for describing changemaker journeys. This will replace our previous three stages and give us a clearer, more accurate way to map programmes and design pathways between them. You’ll begin to see this new language reflected across our work as we launch our new strategy in 2026.

3. Strengthening our support beyond funding

We are reviewing all the non-financial support we offer — past and present — to understand what has worked and what needs to evolve. This includes streamlining processes, building out our organisational development and wellbeing support, improving our outreach/pre-award support, and exploring how we can support access to physical spaces.

Looking ahead

The Pipelines and Pathways research marks an important moment in the development of our work investing in young people to create change. It helps us name what we’ve learned, refine how we work, and lay the foundations for a more coherent, intentional and long-term approach to supporting young people leading change.

In 2026, we will be launching our next strategy with our new terminology and approach embedded within it. We are excited about the clarity and possibility this research brings — and, above all, about continuing to back young changemakers as they shape the future.

An update on the Roots & Routes Climate Justice Fund

What is the Roots & Routes Fund?

The Roots & Routes Fund is a collaborative fund that supports individual young changemakers and youth-led organisations based in England who are working on improving climate justice, and the infrastructure organisations that support them.

It combines the funds, expertise and networks of the Blagrave Trust, Co-op Foundation, Energy Saving Trust Foundation, OVO Foundation and Impatience Earth.

Why does it exist?

Youth-led climate action is critically underfunded. Recent research shows that only 0.96% of grants from major climate foundations go to youth-led climate initiatives.

This fund was created to address that gap, recognising that young people, especially those from communities most affected by climate injustice, are often overlooked by traditional funding streams.

By working together, we hope to reduce the administrative burden placed on young people who are often applying for multiple grants from like-minded funders, completing multiple reports and holding multiple funding relationships. Our partnership aims to reduce this burden, and together we believe we can enable more impact than the sum of our parts.

Our progress since November 2025

Since November we’ve been working on strengthening the ecosystem with five organisations providing infrastructure support to youth-led climate justice organisations and young changemakers. We recognise that the ecosystem of youth-led climate justice changemaking is in its infancy and requires a strong infrastructure base to support it.

The youth-led climate justice ecosystem is still developing, and many groups rely on a small number of organisations that provide training, fiscal hosting, networks and pathways into the sector. In the second phase of our Fund, we have partnered with five infrastructure organisations, nominated by the youth-led groups already supported by the Roots & Routes Fund.

Choosing our infrastructure partners

Potential infrastructure organisations were nominated by at least one of the youth-led organisations we started funding in November 2025. Starting with a longlist, we assessed nominated organisations against criteria such as their legal structure and the strength of their infrastructure support to youth-led climate justice groups.

In March 2026, we provided a grant of £19,800 to each of the following five organisations:

Climate Majority Project – nominated by MAFIA Weekend

Climate Majority Project works to strengthen the infrastructure for citizen-led climate action by supporting initiatives that help shift public and political engagement on climate. It provides funding, networks and strategic support to organisations working to build a broad societal majority for climate action.

The Movements Trust – nominated by Youth Climate Collaborative

The Movements Trust provides infrastructure support to grassroots social movements by sharing its charitable status and helping movements access funding and resources. It works to remove structural barriers that prevent informal or emerging youth-led movements from receiving support.

Youth Environmental Service – nominated by MAFIA Weekend

Youth Environmental Service builds pathways into the environmental sector by placing young people in year-long paid roles within environmental organisations. The programme supports the capacity of host organisations while helping develop the next generation of people working on environmental and climate issues.

Bright Green Future – nominated by MAFIA Weekend

Bright Green Future supports the development of future leaders in the clean energy transition through a structured programme for young people aged 16–19. It contributes to sector infrastructure by building skills, networks and career pathways for young people who are underrepresented in the environmental sector.

OrganicLea – nominated by Time to Grow!

OrganicLea is a workers’ cooperative and community food project that supports local infrastructure for sustainable food production and distribution. Alongside growing and selling food, it runs training, volunteering and community programmes that help build skills and participation in a more just food system.

Plans for 2026

We want to see the youth-led climate justice movement continue to grow and thrive in 2026. We will not be running another funding round in 2026 but will be using the year to work more deeply with our inaugural cohort of changemakers and infrastructure organisations.

We are hoping that by 2027 we’ll have gathered enough learning to better understand how the combination of all our approaches – funding individuals, movements and infrastructure – works to strengthen the ecosystem of changemaking in the climate justice space for young people.

In autumn, we are planning to recruit five young people to act as our advisers. Our Roots & Routes advisers will shape a new round of funding we are planning for 2027.

Another focus for 2026 is fundraising. We believe that funding youth-led climate justice movements enables us to meet both our social justice and climate commitments. Expanding funding for these organisations will ensure the climate justice leaders of the future are supported in their work and protected against burnout.

If you’re a funder interested in joining the Roots & Routes Fund, please get in touch with Marie@Blagravetrust.org for details of how you can get involved.

Learning from our pilot year

Alongside announcing our infrastructure partnerships, we wanted to share learning from our pilot year. This helped us deepen our understanding of youth-led climate justice. Here are some of the key things we’ve learned so far.

Learning about youth-led climate justice

• The youth-led climate justice sector is larger and more vibrant than we anticipated, made up primarily of grassroots groups.
• Many organisations describe their work as social justice rather than climate justice.
• Seventeen youth-led climate justice organisations met our criteria, but we only had the resources to fund six. This highlights the scale of unmet demand for funding in the youth-led climate justice space.
• These organisations tend to operate with smaller budgets and minimal infrastructure, correlating with barriers to sustainability.
• Only one of the ten shortlisted groups was a registered charity; many were CICs, CLGs or unincorporated collectives.
• A lack of internal infrastructure, such as financial reporting, safeguarding and accounting, can make these groups appear higher risk.
• Fiscal hosting and pre-award support proved essential in enabling grant access and ensuring due diligence.
• The needs of youth-led climate justice organisations are often unmet due to funder discomfort with perceived risk.

Learning about ourselves

• Shared values among fund partners have helped to build trust and effective collaboration.
• The strength of our relationships has helped us navigate difficult decisions, though it may also make hard conversations less likely if we prioritise harmony over candour.
• Our approach to shared governance, such as flat decision-making regardless of contribution, has been an asset, as it streamlined decision-making and enabled us to fund young people quickly.
• We benefited from working iteratively, making decisions together as learning emerged.
• We learned that we each brought different skills to the table, including strategy, comms and funding for youth-led organisations, and assigned responsibilities according to those skill sets.
• As the fund grows, we must ensure that strong relationships do not limit our willingness to surface disagreement.
• We are beginning to understand what will and won’t translate to other funders; clarity in communication is key to replication.

Learning about our approach

• The rapid launch meant that some processes, especially decision-making, were tested for the first time during the application phase.
• The volume and quality of applications exceeded expectations, prompting learning about how to tighten criteria in future. Our current criteria did not adequately manage volume; further refinement, especially regarding youth leadership thresholds, could be used to manage volume in future iterations.
• Outreach, while yielding a decent spread, was still regionally imbalanced, favouring the South of England.
• Better outreach in Northern regions will require more time and tailored relationship-building.
• We didn’t communicate the term “infrastructure” clearly enough, leading to confusion among applicants and partners.
• Clearer definitions and expectations are needed early in the process.

For any other queries, please contact Daniel@Blagravetrust.org

Youth-led Groups Leading the Way: Reflections from the Pathways Fund Cohort Meet-Up

The Pathways Fund offers youth-led groups mobilising change in their community (identity-based or geographic) core grants of £60K–£90K (£20K–£30K p.a. over three years) alongside a significant support offer. We’ve always seen the programme as more than a funding pot – it is a programme to build the skills, confidence and capacity of youth lived-experience-led organisations across the UK.

The recent cohort meet-up of our Pathways Fund partners brought that vision to life. This gathering was an opportunity for our Pathways Fund grant partners to take a pause from their day-to-day and come together to connect, learn and reflect on their journey.

There was so much rich discussion throughout the day, with some key themes coming through…

Leading While Holding So Much

We heard honest reflections on what it takes to lead in this space. Small, part-time teams carry huge responsibilities, often without the resources or recognition to match. Burnout, funding pressures and structural inequality were common themes. Leaders shared the strain of supporting others while managing their own wellbeing — often while navigating the same systems they are working to change.

The Impact of Youth-Led Change

Despite the challenges, the achievements shared were nothing short of inspiring. From building the political agency of young Muslim women in Manchester, to empowering young people within the prison system — this cohort is proof of what’s possible when lived experience and youth leadership is supported with resources and trust.

Growth and Momentum

We heard stories of transition and transformation: from grassroots projects to registered organisations, from bedroom offices to permanent spaces, from lone founders to growing teams. These shifts are a testament to the clarity and commitment these leaders bring to their work — and the power of additional investment in their organisational development.

The Need for Access to Expert Advice

A highlight of the day was our “Surgery Session”, where participants brought real-time challenges to a panel of expert practitioners across rotating tables. Legal, HR, strategy, safeguarding, income generation and PR were all on offer. The insights were practical and empowering — offering clarity on the technical questions that can otherwise hold back growth.

Learning from Each Other

The Open Space session gave participants the floor to lead. They shared resources, ideas and support — everything from how they used Wellbeing Grants to offering their own office spaces and studios to others. This kind of peer-to-peer generosity and peer learning lies at the heart of the programme’s ethos.

We are proud to walk alongside these groups — not just as a funder, but as a partner. Our Pathways Fund partners are shaping the future, and we’re grateful to be part of their journey.

A year on, learning from the Youth Organising Movement Builders

Introduction

Blagrave explains that it partnered with NEON to map the youth-organising field and run a residential for people working across the UK youth-organising space. It defines youth organising as youth-led, rooted in lived experience, and focused on building power for systemic change while supporting young people’s individual and collective development.

Field mapping

The article links to NEON’s field-mapping work, which maps different actors in youth organising against the Ayni Institute’s Movement Ecology model. It also references a Civic Power Fund reflections document drawing together this work and other research from the previous five years.

The residential

The residential brought together 30 leaders and had three main aims:

• deepen participants’ understanding of how they can collectively create change
• build skills and knowledge for lasting social change
• create stronger connections and solidarity between organisers across issues, movements and regions

Key takeaways

Community Infrastructure and Shared Space

A major theme was the lack of physical community spaces available to activists. The piece argues that access to shared space is fundamental for relationship-building and movement infrastructure.

Intersectionality

Participants valued learning across different identities and issues. The article specifically notes that some people said it was their first time sharing space with trans and non-binary people, and that this strengthened their ability to build solidarity across communities.

Organisational Development

Grassroots organisations often struggle to secure sustained core funding, limiting access to peer support, coaching, mentoring and leadership development.

The New Economy and the State

Participants shared experiences of state violence, including policing, the hostile immigration system and the criminalisation of protest. The article identifies collective care and access to healing spaces as important responses.

What’s next

Blagrave says the work has influenced its approach to anti-oppressive facilitation, youth organising, activism and movement infrastructure. It also explains that Blagrave, Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Esmée Fairbairn Foundation subsequently launched the Funder Collaborative for Youth Organising, alongside support for the UK’s first Alliance for Youth Organising, with an initial two-year investment of £600,000.

Acknowledgements

The Youth Organising Movement Builders work grew from a listening exercise undertaken by Blagrave with the Act for Change Fund, and built on existing research and learning around youth-led change.

The ripple effect of PGM

The ripple effect of Participatory Grant Making

Back in 2024, we recruited our first multi-generational panel of advisers for the Regional Programme, which distributes around £1.2m each year to youth organisations across the South East of England.

Why?

Rather than making funding decisions solely from Blagrave, we brought together eight people with lived and professional experience of the youth sector. We hoped this would lead to better-informed decisions, but the benefits went much further.

What we learned

Individual empowerment
Advisers felt their lived, learned and professional expertise was genuinely valued and fairly paid. For some, the experience changed their expectations of future employment and their sense of what they could contribute.

Impact on applicants
Advisers gave applications considerable time and thoughtful feedback, helping applicants feel seen and valued regardless of the outcome.

Sector impact
The programme also demonstrated higher standards for funder behaviour, particularly around feedback, responsiveness and respect.

What it took

Advisers were contracted for at least 12 months, paid for their time, given a substantial induction and supported to build relationships and reflect together. The programme cost around £10,000 in direct costs and support, with approximately 100 hours budgeted for each adviser over the year.

Blagrave concluded that the investment directly supported its mission of putting power in the hands of the people it seeks to serve.

Thanks went to regional advisers Helen, Karen, Megan, Alec, Gray, Zamy, Eli and Louise, and independent facilitator Katherine Perrin.

Investing for Future Generations

Investing for Future Generations

Blagrave is part of the Endowments Investing Challenge, an initiative asking what investment could look like if the needs of young people and future generations were placed at its heart. A group of UK foundations is inviting the investment sector to design an impact-led portfolio, with up to £50 million committed and shortlisted proposals due to be presented at the Barbican Centre in March 2026.

A future generations lens

The work connects closely to Blagrave’s emerging strategy and its commitment to being a good ancestor: recognising that decisions made today about wealth and investment will shape lives for generations. This means questioning traditional approaches to endowments, widening who gets a voice in investment decisions and creating accountability to young people now and in the future.

Blagrave has helped establish a Future Generations Panel of young adults whose perspectives on climate, mental health, housing, education and inequality will inform the initiative.

Building accountability and hope

The project also builds on Blagrave’s contribution to the UN Summit of the Future in New York. The aim is to explore how capital can support agency, hope and long-term flourishing, while creating new ways for young people to influence how philanthropic assets are stewarded.

Eli Manderson Evans
CEO, The Blagrave Trust

Young People in Policymaking: Key learnings from Year Two

In 2022, Blagrave Trust launched the Young People in Policymaking fund to support organisations working with young people aged 16–25 who have experienced social injustice. The fund aimed to empower young people to shape policy decisions affecting their lives rather than being passive recipients. In its second year, ten funded organisations continued to develop and refine their approaches, with a stronger emphasis on representing young people’s perspectives in policymaking spaces.

Policy issues and adapting to change

Year Two saw a clearer distinction between organisations aligning their policy work with broader advocacy priorities and those focusing on topics chosen by young people. Some groups pursued issues that linked to national or sector-wide campaigns, while others tailored their campaigns to more localised concerns.

The 2024 snap General Election created both challenges and opportunities. Pre-election uncertainty, restrictions during the purdah period, and post-election shifts in political relationships disrupted some advocacy efforts. However, many organisations used the election as a platform to amplify their campaigns, build new relationships and refine their policy asks.

Unexpected external events also shaped priorities. The far-right riots in summer 2024 led to a shift in focus on community support for some, and prompted others to explore the rise of right-wing ideology and its impact on young people.

Influencing approaches

Across the cohort, organisations engaged with a wide range of policymakers, from MPs and local authorities to sector-specific bodies such as schools and health services. Some adopted a dual strategy, influencing both local and national policy.

Organisations used multiple approaches to influence policy, including:

• Leveraging existing relationships between policymakers and staff members to broker discussions with young people.
• Mobilising young people as advocates, encouraging them to write to MPs and participate in direct action.
• Showcasing young people’s priorities in sector forums, conferences and networking events.

A key discussion among partners was the balance between youth-led and youth-informed approaches. Some organisations are reconsidering fully youth-led governance and operational structures, recognising that while young people should set the agenda, they may need adult support to convert this into strategy and execution.

Youth engagement and impact

Engaging young people in meaningful ways remains central. Many organisations employed creative methods — such as games, trips and co-created campaign materials — to keep young people involved.

While policy change was the overarching goal, many partners recognised the value of the process itself in building young people’s skills and confidence, empowering them as future changemakers.

Communications and advocacy tactics

Year Two saw a stronger focus on storytelling to highlight young people’s experiences. However, partners noted a tension between creating content that showcases young people’s self-expression, content which resonates with policymakers, and materials to engage grassroots supporters.

Understanding different audiences and tailoring messages accordingly is crucial. Some organisations are exploring ways of integrating storytelling with data to maximise credibility and impact.

Partnerships and alliances

Many organisations expanded their impact through partnerships, whether forming project-specific collaborations or leveraging long-term alliances. These partnerships help amplify young people’s voices and improve sector-wide practice.

Common challenges and constraints

Many of the challenges reflect those discussed in Year One of the programme as well as trends in the wider youth sector.

• Many organisations struggled with limited resources and expertise to translate youth engagement into effective policy work. Recruitment challenges persisted from Year One, with youth workers often unfamiliar with policy processes and policy staff lacking youth work experience. Staffing churn also disrupted relationships with young people and policymakers.
• Sustaining youth engagement over long-term projects remained challenging. Organisations found that celebrating small wins and providing opportunities for direct action, such as protests, helped maintain motivation.
• Pre-election political uncertainty made securing commitments difficult, while post-election shifts required adaptation to new government priorities.
• Internally, changes in leadership and strategy within organisations also affected team morale and continuity. Maintaining core values during transitions was key to stability.
• Balancing policy work with community needs was challenging for some organisations, when a strict focus on policy impact conflicted with responding to immediate community concerns, especially for minoritised groups.

Looking ahead to Year Three

As the programme enters its third year, partners are planning for project legacy and considering how to embed their work into their organisations for lasting impact. Key priorities include maintaining relationships with policymakers and sector alliances, but funding uncertainty makes defining long-term ambitions difficult.

The learning programme will continue to capture insights through action learning methods, with additional storytelling and communications support to reflect the completion of the projects and showcase successes.

Learning from Listening

After six years, The Listening Fund has closed. Through our brilliant partners, we have learned so much about what is needed to improve accountability to young people, as well as gaining valuable insights into running a pooled fund, working directly with young people and sharing knowledge. This short blog is a summary of that learning and if you’d like to know more then please do get in touch: we’d love to have a chat!

Improving accountability to young people

There is no ‘right way’ to better listen to young people. Identifying an effective approach depends on many contextual factors including an organisation’s listening skills and readiness, the young people with whom they’re working, staff knowledge and capacity, and the organisation’s existing work and mission.

Although different contexts resulted in a variety of listening approaches, there were some common factors which supported partners’ most successful work:

• Having a clear ‘why’: developing a robust rationale for why this work was important to the organisation and its overall mission
• Time: building a culture of listening and accountability is a long-term investment which requires proper planning and strategic commitment
• Flexibility: adapting plans, processes and structures according to the needs and feedback of young people, staff and other stakeholders
• Organisational buy-in: not only to new listening structures and processes, but to the ‘why’ behind the listening
• Peer support: access to a network of professionals engaged in similar work who can offer insight and support.

Running a pooled fund

Blagrave positioned itself as the lead organisation within The Listening Fund. This provided decision-making clarity, a sense of ownership and organisational simplicity which benefited both contributing funders and delivery partners.

However, this approach also meant that The Listening Fund didn’t maximise the resources it might have had at its disposal had the management of The Listening Fund been more of a collaborative endeavour. A looser sense of ownership also understandably reduced some funders’ engagement. Organisations establishing a pooled fund should consider the balance between clarity in management and the weight of collective resources.

Working with young people in philanthropy

Collective Discovery captured the insights and lessons from The Listening Fund’s journey with its board of 10 young advisers. Based on our experience, issues to consider for funders exploring working alongside young people include:

• Establish a clear reason for involving young people in your work: and ensure that all stakeholders, including young people, know and understand the ‘why’ of their involvement
• Do an in-house audit of the skills, policies and procedures required for the planned work: few funders are set up to work directly with young people, so take the time to understand if you need external support and plan accordingly
• Make sure you’re well prepared to meet young people’s needs: including relationship-building residentials, personal development opportunities, and the different levels of existing knowledge and experience which will exist amongst your new recruits.

Sharing knowledge

The Listening Fund was always eager to share what it learnt with the wider sector but despite having access to funders’ resources and privileges, it struggled to generate widescale interest in its work. This was in part because we failed to properly identify our audience.

Once we began to focus on practitioners, on those already convinced of the importance of listening and accountability but eager to explore how to do this work well, we enjoyed a significant increase in engagement.

Working with a learning partner

Far less of this learning would have been surfaced, and in a much more haphazard way, without the support and involvement of Collective Discovery. The success of this partnership was dependent on Collective Discovery’s independence from The Listening Fund; their experience which enabled them to build trusting relationships with the Fund’s partners; and their long-standing interest in the ideas and principles behind the Fund.

In addition, Collective Discovery were comfortable and confident working iteratively, trying different approaches to supporting partners, capturing learning and sharing what they discovered. This resulted not only in the broad variety of resources on The Listening Fund website, but also an 11-part podcast series exploring the work of the Fund: not something we could have predicted in 2020.

Talk to us!

This blog is a snapshot of what has emerged from six years of collaboration. If you’re interested in going into more detail about what we’ve learned, contact us at grants@blagravetrust.org to start a conversation.

Edd Fry
Listening Fund Project Manager

Blagrave in New York, UN Summit of the future

In September, I had the opportunity to attend the UN Summit of the Future in New York. The summit was framed as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for change, with a strong focus on embedding young people and future generations into decision-making.

The Summit of the Future Action Days took place at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 20–21 September 2024, bringing together representatives from Member States, young changemakers, civil society leaders, the private sector, academia, local and regional authorities and many others. I was proud to represent the Blagrave Trust alongside so many hopeful and inspiring young changemakers and allies.

The Action Days began with a youth-led afternoon, followed by a Saturday programme focused on three main themes: digital and technology, peace and security, and sustainable development and financing. Future generations were also a dedicated focus throughout the programme. Participants included Heads of State, Ministers, senior UN officials and representatives from civil society and other sectors.

As the leader of a youth-centred charity in the UK, the summit was an important opportunity to centre the needs and ambitions of the young people we support at Blagrave while also advocating for future generations. It also helped me step outside our UK context, learn from challenges and approaches elsewhere in the world, build new relationships and exchange ideas with people working towards similar goals.

A particular highlight was meeting Sophie Howe, Wales’s first Future Generations Commissioner, who held the role from 2016 to 2023. During her tenure, she championed the interests of future generations and supported public bodies to meet the wellbeing goals established by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. She has also played an important role in supporting the development of the Pact for the Future.

I was encouraged by the role of the newly established UN Youth Office and its potential to create more meaningful opportunities for youth leadership within the United Nations. Its existence represents an important shift towards putting young people closer to the heart of the UN’s work, but the challenge now is ensuring that commitments to youth engagement translate into action across UN offices and processes.

President José Maria Neves of Cabo Verde spoke about youth empowerment and the need to confront current and future crises without extinguishing young people’s hope. He called on those holding power internationally to give young people access to the resources they need for their wellbeing and meaningful participation, and urged the international charity sector to nurture youth leadership and involve young people properly in shaping the future.

I also heard from Dan Carden, Labour MP for Liverpool Walton and President of the Forum of Young Parliamentarians at the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He spoke about the scale of the global crises we face, the concentration of power and wealth, and the need for young people to have a genuine place at decision-making tables. He also highlighted the importance of education and opportunities for young people to imagine a different world, noting that although around half of the world’s population is under 30, young people make up only a very small proportion of parliamentarians.

The Pact for the Future offers a framework for bringing the interests of future generations into decisions being made today. It asks leaders to consider the long-term effects of their choices on society, the environment and the economy, and to move beyond short-term thinking towards approaches that protect the wellbeing of people who are not yet born.

In a session with UN Secretary-General António Guterres and several young changemakers, the discussion focused on meaningful youth engagement, the barriers that prevent it, and the risks of tokenism. Climate activist Daphne Frias argued for bringing young people from marginalised communities into the centre of decision-making and for a more intersectional approach. She also highlighted reverse mentoring as a way for established leaders to learn directly from younger generations.

Guterres was challenged on why institutional voices are so often prioritised over the communities directly affected by decisions. He acknowledged the barriers to genuine youth participation within the UN and stressed that young people must play a central role in implementing the Pact for the Future. For me, his emphasis on older generations making space and transferring power to younger people strongly reflects the principles we are trying to put into practice at Blagrave.

What is the UN’s Pact for the Future?

The Pact for the Future is intended to strengthen the UN’s ability to respond to global challenges and encourage longer-term, more inclusive decision-making.

Reforming the UN

Making the UN more effective and accountable in responding to crises including climate change, conflict and pandemics.

Global Cooperation

Strengthening international cooperation on issues that cannot be solved by individual countries acting alone.

Sustainable Development

Reinforcing commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and to a fairer, more sustainable future.

Inclusivity

Ensuring decision-making includes a wider range of voices, particularly those of communities that have historically been marginalised.

Overall, the Pact for the Future aims to renew the UN’s role in supporting peace, security and development in a rapidly changing world.

I also attended several brilliant events hosted by other organisations, including a roundtable on long-term governance hosted by the School of International Futures.

I attended Slow Factory’s first gala event, ‘Global South Renaissance’. We also ran our own fringe event, ‘Resourcing Young People’s Futures – a funder roundtable’.

Resourcing Young People’s Futures was co-hosted by Blagrave and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s Kinship Discovery team. The event explored questions we are currently holding about how to resource young people’s futures by moving wealth into their stewardship, and how to embed accountability to future generations into our practices and governance.

At the event, I shared the exciting news that the Blagrave Trust is exploring our relationship with our assets through a community wealth-building lens. We are looking at how we can develop a new relationship with the wealth we steward that prioritises positive impact for young people and future generations. We look forward to sharing our learning publicly in 2025.

All in all, my trip to New York strengthened Blagrave’s commitment to being ambitious in how we invest in young people. My first experience of attending a UN Summit opened my eyes to the incredible work being done globally and helped build new relationships with fellow leaders determined to lead with hope, bring lasting change to the lives of young people and act upon their right to be heard in pursuit of a fair and just society.

The experiences and connections made during the trip will undoubtedly inform our ongoing work and strengthen our resolve to be bold in our commitments to young people across England.

I’m grateful to the Paul Hamlyn Foundation for supporting me to attend the Summit, and to everyone I met in New York for their time, energy and commitment to our shared missions. I came away buzzing with inspiration and ideas.

Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to develop our thinking about how the decisions we make now can positively impact future generations of young people.

Eli Manderson Evans, CEO