Current programmes
Regional Funding
Our regional funding invests in youth organisations that make lasting impact in the lives of young people aged 16 – 25, in Berkshire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Sussex and Wiltshire only.
Check if you’re eligible to apply
Results
Thank you. You meet our basic eligibility criteria. Please read more about our priorities for funding below.
I’m sorry, you’re not eligible for Blagrave regional funding. You can find information on other sources of funding here: https://www.ncvo.org.uk/help-and-guidance/funding-income/how-find-grants/
#1. Do you work with young people aged 16-25?
#2. Does your work support young people in Berkshire, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Sussex and/or Wiltshire?
#3. Are you a registered charity, CIO or CIC?
#4. Is your turnover less than £5m?
Our regional funding is available on an ongoing basis and you are welcome to apply here.
Here is a flavour of some of the work we fund…
Readipop
Readipop works with young people to unlock their creativity and self-expression through music making and performance, offering mentoring and inspiration to hundreds of young people each year in Reading.
Team Domenica
Team Domenica is a unique social enterprise charity offering young people with learning disabilities in Brighton the chance to develop their employability through real time work.
Previous programmes
Restart Youth
The Restart Youth fund has now come to an end.
Please click here to be notified about future regional funding programmes.
The Listening Fund
Regional Advisers' Fund
We fund young people directly, supporting them to create the change they want to see. We fund individuals, collectives, and youth-led groups in our programmes.
We prioritise young people who are emergent and have lived and direct experience of the injustice and oppression they are fighting to change.
We define:
- young people as those who are 18-30 years old.
- emergent groups/individuals as those who have some experience in doing work for social justice but may struggle to access financial and other forms of support to develop their work and ideas.
- lived and direct experience as having first-hand experience, past or present, of the oppression they are fighting to change.
Current programmes
Roots & Routes Fund
*Youth-Led: For the purpose of this fund, we are defining youth-led as organisations led by people aged 18–30. Youth-led organisations must have a minimum of 55% of their leadership within this age bracket.
**Climate justice: We understand that there are many definitions of climate justice. For the purpose of this fund, we are using the definition used by the Youth Climate Study.
“The impacts of climate change are not felt equally between rich and poor, or among older, younger and future generations. A ‘climate justice’ approach demands that actions taken to mitigate or adapt to climate change are centred on the most affected people and places. It takes an intersectional approach, recognising that climate risks can further depress social and economic outcomes for marginalised groups, including people on low incomes, women and girls, people of colour, and indigenous peoples. Often, youth climate justice action seeks systemic change, championing redistributive solutions that challenge dominant paradigms of power and economic growth.”
You are welcome to apply HERE
Challenge and Change Fund
Challenge and change will be coming back later in 2025, watch this space!
In 2022 and 2023, we funded an incredible cohort of partners who have worked hard to tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time and making a real difference. We are excited to shine a spotlight on their remarkable stories and accomplishments. Their dedication, innovation, and passion for change have left a profound impact on their communities and us! Click here to explore their inspiring stories.
Stay tuned as we unveil the stories of these partners who are shaping the future and making the world a better place, one Challenge (& Change) at a time.
The Challenge and Change Fund historically offered grants of between £1K-£10K to emergent individuals and youth-led groups with a vision for change across England. We have funded 55 grant partners through this programme since 2020.
The original pilot fund was co-created by three Challenge and Change Advisers, Blagrave, and the Centre for Knowledge Equity, with funding from the Ellis Campbell Foundation and ZING. To learn more about the pilot, our key lessons, and a deeper dive into the design and delivery of the Fund, please read our report: Building a Youth-Led Fund: Learning and insights from the Challenge and Change Fund and/or watch our learning event.
In 2022, the fund was designed by seven advisers: two from the initial team and a further five who were partners in the first round of the Challenge and Change fund. Together with Blagrave staff, they shared insights from their own experiences. We awarded a further 26 grants of up to £10,000 to individuals and collectives tackling a wide range of social issues to challenge social injustice.
Applications for Challenge and Change are currently closed.
Please click here to be notified about potential funding opportunities in the future.
Pathways Fund
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 3 years) alongside a significant support offer.
In 2025 this support offer includes:
- An in-person cohort meet up.
- Quarterly catch ups with our Youth Led Change Manager
- £1000 Organisations Development Budget per year
- £1000 Wellbeing Budget per year
- Access to a storyteller to support partners in showcasing their impact.
We define youth-led groups for Pathways Fund as 70% of the group’s leadership being under 30 years old and having direct experience of the injustice they are trying to change. We see this programme as a ‘pathway’ to support these groups to deepen their practice, build their confidence, and build strong foundations to deepen their impact for the long term. Since 2022, we have funded 17 partners through our Pathways Fund programme, funding groups across a variety of themes and issues, regions, and legal forms.
Read more about our Pathways Fund Partners and the learning coming out of the group. Watch this space as we share more over the coming year!
Here is a flavour of some of the work we fund…
Radical Body Arts
Radical Body are a disability arts organisation producing radical new performances by and for disabled people, with a particular focus on improving access to careers in the arts for people who have difficulty leaving their homes.
Muslim Northern Women
Muslim Northern Women is a youth-led collective of Muslim women and girls in Northern England building power and organising to dismantle systems of oppression rooted in Islamophobia.
Climate Justice Accelerator
A big part of the CJA is the support offered alongside an unrestricted grant of £20,000 per year for three years. This support offer seeks to build upon our knowledge by offering –
- 10 days of capacity building consultancy per year.
- Cohort meet-ups.
- £1000 wellbeing budget.
- Networking and convening support.
By offering this support we hope to grow to ecosystem of youth-led changemaking in the climate justice space.
In December 2024 we chose four organisations we wanted to work with. These are:
Applications for the Climate Justice Accelerator are currently closed.
Please click here to be notified about potential funding opportunities in the future.
Previous programmes
The Opportunity Fund
The Opportunity Fund sought to support young people (18-25) who were passionately campaigning for social change or had ideas for a social purpose enterprise, but did not have the resource or capacity to fully explore their potential – they couldn’t live rent free, take a gap year or rely on connections.
But it took more than money – it needed time, connections, permission, and encouragement as well.
The Fund provided the equivalent of a part-time basic income and additional support for 25 aspiring social entrepreneurs, campaigners and activists (although, they wouldn’t necessarily use these labels) – to nurture and explore their passion, ideas and expertise whilst recognising their need to earn a living. It focused on young people with experiences of structural and systemic injustice and inequality – those most often furthest from the capital and resources needed for them to drive social change.
We hope our learning will support other funders to step into directly funding young people – to recognise the value in this approach and to embrace the opportunity.
We learnt that as well as money, these young people needed:
- Time
18 months felt short for some young people, although it is still longer than most programmes - Connections
Funders need to open up their networks to young people - Permission
We all feel the need to succeed or win – young people needed reassurance that this was a genuine opportunity to explore and develop, with no pressure or expectation to deliver anything more - Encouragement
After all, everyone benefits from reassurance and praise, especially when for some this was their first experience of leadership
We learnt that working alongside trusted partners to support young people was critical – and resourcing those partners appropriately was essential.
We learnt that no matter what the outcome of the campaign or business, the experience for each young person of having someone believe in you, and providing funding and support for a sustained period led to 100% increasing their aspirations for their life and work. Young people improved their quality of life, gained employability skills and 82% felt more able to influence and impact on others. The Opportunity Fund recognised that the personal journey has more value than simply the end destination for each young person.
The offer needed to be carefully made, to young people who were ready – in terms of their skills, wellbeing, clarity of goals, and experience. The majority of young people achieved social impact on injustices they directly experienced in their lives, including homelessness, exclusion, mental health and wellbeing. Whilst powerful it must be acknowledged that this work takes its toll – purpose work is often deeply rooted in people’s lived experience and pursuing it requires appropriate support and self-care. We needed to find the right balance to give young people greater autonomy over their decisions and actions, to share power whilst providing appropriate support and guidance.
We learnt that whilst there are parallels, supporting entrepreneurs is distinct in many ways to supporting campaigners.
Ensuring young people have the time, financial resource and quality support to grow from feels like a reasonable ask of funders. In our experience this allowed young people to step into their passions, dreams and lives, to experiment and to explore, to learn and to develop as individuals with a social purpose.
There’s much more in the report – or contact info@phf.org.uk or grants@blagravetrust.org with any questions or for further information.
Please click here to be notified about potential funding opportunities in the future.
Partner Development Fund
Costs could include developmental opportunities, collaboration and travel costs, or funding to support wellbeing and rest.
We designed the fund in direct response to feedback and learning from our youth-led partners who expressed the need for quick-release micro-funding to support unexpected needs as they emerge.
The pilot of this programme was so successful that we now build it in as a key support offer on all grant programmes, and therefore is no longer a separate Programme.
Applications for Partner Development Fund are now closed.
We will be prioritising proposals based on:
- Innovative nature of the work
- Potential for learning (for Blagrave, and for the wider sector)
- Potential for scale / sector impact
- Work that does not fit (neatly) elsewhere in our funding offers
Current programmes
Alliance for Youth Organising
We are delighted to announce the launch of a new Alliance for Youth Organising: an intergenerational collective that will work together to invest in the structures, spaces, networks and organisations needed for youth organising to thrive.
This Alliance is supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, and The Blagrave Trust and hosted by the Civic Power Fund. We share a vision of a world in which young people are aware of their power and can build and wield it to achieve change.
Why an Alliance for Youth Organising?
Young people are at the forefront of some of our most urgent struggles. They are demanding racial, economic and climate justice and they are standing in solidarity with trans and migrant communities.
Meanwhile, rising housing, education and living costs threaten their futures. And scarce and short-term funding is hampering our youth sector, with brilliant organisations left firefighting.
By building power, agency and intergenerational solidarity, community organising offers a powerful route for young people to transform this present and reclaim their futures.
Yet youth organising is under-resourced, meaning the full potential of the field is not yet realised.
Following extensive engagement with young campaigners, activists and community organisers, we have identified an Alliance for Youth Organising as a way to change this.
What is the Alliance for Youth Organising?
- use their knowledge and networks to resource youth organising for the long-term
- manage an annual budget to support the needs of the field
- shape their own vision and the core priorities they want to invest in.
They are also establishing a new Funder Collaborative for Youth Organising inviting other funders dedicated to advancing youth organising as a strategy for youth development and social justice to share learning and help bring new money into this space.
Funder Collaborative for Youth Organising
Building on recommendations from commissioned research by the Act for Change Fund and the Blagrave Trust, and following extensive engagement over two years with young changemakers and practitioners, the collaborative aims to:
- strategically invest in existing and emerging infrastructure to advance youth organising and activism in the UK
- create a community of practice around funding youth organising and activism, sharing learning, and supporting other funders to shift focus
- coordinate funder efforts to leverage further capital into this space and avoid duplication.
Above all we aim to be guided by young people, practitioners, and leaders in this field, continually interrogating how we can shift more decision-making power and resource to the field.
Alongside launching the Funder Collaborative for Youth Organising, the founding funders have supported the creation of the UK’s first Alliance for Youth Organising in partnership with the Civic Power Fund. The Alliance will act as an intergenerational collective of practitioners, working together to strengthen youth organising infrastructure, starting up with an initial two-year investment of £600,000. They will:
- use their knowledge and networks to resource youth organising for the long-term
- manage an annual budget to support the needs of the field
- shape their own vision and the core priorities they want to invest in.
If you are interested to join us or learn more, please register your interest via the Funder Collaborative Hub website.
Youth Led Change Day
The purpose of the Youth Led Change Day is to bring young changemakers from across our network and the wider field together to build connection, learn new skills, and celebrate the amazing work they do. We aim to bring together young changemakers from across different thematic, regions, type of change work, and level of development and try not to be too explicit with criteria of ‘who’ should be in the space – all you need to be is being 18-30 years old, involved in change work, and connected to our wider network.
Our last Youth Led Change Day took place on Saturday 7th December in Birmingham. This is the first time we have held a large-scale event outside of London/the South East and despite Storm Darragh causing a few travel issues it was a huge success, with our biggest turnout to date – over 100 people in attendance (if you include staff and trustees).
The day in numbers…
- Over 90 young change makers, activists, and leaders aged 18-30 in attendance.
- 21 young changemakers in paid roles, leading and supporting the event.
- 12 delivery partners, including 9 youth-led collectives, driving impactful workshops and sessions.
- 2 local West Midlands changemakers from our network hosting the event with energy and passion.
- 3 incredible performers sparking reflection and creating change through their art.
We had workshops covering strategy, campaigning, empathetic leadership, conflict resolution, anti-oppression, wellbeing, and fundraising, as well as inspiring performances and speakers. The day was a true testament to the incredible changemakers driving change for their communities.
We will be announcing the date of the next Youth Led Change Day later this year.
Previous programmes
Youth Organising Movement Builders
We partnered with NEON to deliver a Youth Organising Movement Builders programme this July. Movement Builders is a four-day residential training programme with between 25 – 30 participants.
Key Details
- Details: Movement Builders, Youth Organising Special
- Dates: Friday 28th July to Monday 31st July 2023
- Location: Leicester
The programme took participants through a range of models and theories which they explored as a whole group and in smaller groups through interactive activities, workshops and discussions. To support organisations and youth organisers to access the training, we offered grants of £1000 per attendee recognising that especially for unpaid organisers or groups with little to no income, attending a 4 day residential training is a big commitment. These grants covered transport, childcare, time away from delivery etc.
We will be sharing learning with the wider field following the event.
Current programmes
Young People in Policy-Making Fund
In spring 2022, we agreed nine new partnerships with organisations leading the way in supporting young people to be a part of the policy making process on issues that have affected their lives.
These organisations are:
- 4Front (campaigning locally, regionally and nationally; local work delivered in Barnet):a member-led youth organisation that supports young people who have experienced trauma, violence and racial injusticeto create change in their own lives, whilst their voices are uplifted to create change in the system in order to achieve transformative precedents for all young people.
- Become (London based, campaigning nationally): one of two projects aiming to influence the implementation of the Care Review findings; working with young people to drive and inform Become’s own advocacy work.
- Challenging Behaviour Foundation (Kent based, campaigning nationally): CBF’s objective is that national and institutional policy on the restraint and accommodation of severely disabled young people in in-patient units be directly informed by those young people’s experiences and views, using a range of innovative communication and interpretation methodologies.
- Leicestershire Cares, partnered with Learning and Work Institute (Leicester-based, campaigning regionally and nationally): one of two projects aiming to influence the implementation of the Care Review findings. Supporting young care experienced researchers to develop and pursue policy asks, starting with access to Universal Credit.
- MAP (Norwich-based, campaigning regionally and nationally): supporting the Young Activist Network to mobilise, work alongside local authorities and participate in national campaigns on youth homelessness, cost of living and poverty solutions ‘post’-Covid.
- Polish Migrants Organise for Change (working alongside local authorities in Liverpool, Cambridgeshire and Birmingham) network of young first-generation migrants (with a focus on Central and Eastern Europeans) campaigning for policy and systemic change around how migrant communities are understood, legislated for, supported and represented. Supporting groups of young people with lived experience of immigration to work alongside local authorities to understand and implement national policy in ways that best serves local communities.”
- Reclaim (Manchester-based, working in Bolton and Leigh): Working-class, youth-led campaigns on: improving high streets/local economies; levelling up; net zero commitments; and links between the three. Targeting election manifestoes in these previous ‘red wall’, now swing seats.
- Warren: Large service delivery charity with history of campaigning and policy influencing. Grant to support posts to working with groups of young people on the specific issues they and their peers have identified as priorities, including diversifying school governance and the development of a suicide prevention policy by Highways England.
- We Belong (campaigning nationally; local work delivered in London and Manchester): also led by young people with lived experience of immigration to the UK, in this case a cohort who arrived from commonwealth countries as children. Working to implement a reduction in the pathway to citizenship from 10 to 5 years as achieved as a policy change in 2021, through a hyperlocal community organising model.
These organisations will be working with each other, with ourselves and with a learning partner, Common Vision, to strengthen their work and share knowledge across the youth sector and policy-making spheres about how to most effectively and impactfully work with young people as part of the policy making process. Read Common Vision’s end of Year 2 learning report here.
Previous programmes
UK Democracy Fund
See the UK Democracy Fund website for more details and how to apply.
Youth Policy and Advocacy Funding
We continue to work with and learn from our existing partnerships with policy and advocacy organisations, however, we do not have funding available for new partnerships at present.
Applications are currently closed for our policy funding.
Here is a document we have put together,
containing alternative funding opportunities
Please click here to be notified about future policy funding programmes.
Here is a flavour of some of the work we fund…
Children England
Children England works with over 20 young people on a long-term basis to reimagine the welfare state with children at the heart and campaigning to make that a reality.
Just for Kids Law
Just for Kids Law supports children and young people with a unique holistic casework model that helps them to overcome the problems they face and use evidence from their practice to campaign for wider reform.
