Deadline: Ongoing Opportunity
The Blagrave Trust is currently accepting applications for the Pathways Fund to fund emergent youth-led groups that are working to change unjust laws, policies, practices, and cultures that have directly affected their lives and the communities of those they share these experiences with.
In July 2022, the Pathways Fund was launched as a pilot in direct response to feedback from a convening of young changemakers that there was a lack of multi-year funding available for youth-led groups. They funded four groups with a total commitment of £300K (£100K a year over three years). They have worked closely with the pilot grant partners, as well as consulted a group of youth-led groups to officially launch this fund in 2023.
They see this fund as a ‘Pathway’ to support groups who are emergent to become more established.
They define:
- emergent groups 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.
- established groups as those who have a track record of impact, strong networks, and are mostly looking for financial resource to ensure they can sustain work that is already happening.
Funding Information
- £60K-90K over three years (£20K-£30K each year).
- Funding is unrestricted, meaning that grant partners can use their grant money on whatever they think will help them best achieve their goals, as long as this is within charity law and for public benefit.
- Please note: They intend to support any successful grant partners to ensure they are confident about what charity law and for public benefit mean and how this may impact their use of the funding.
- As well as the unrestricted funding, Pathways Fund Grant Partners will gain access to the following additional support:
- Quarterly catch-ups with the Youth Led Change Lead
- Training on charity law and safeguarding (if needed)
- Invitation to the annual Youth Led Change Day
- Resource pack (to be developed in 2024)
Eligibility Criteria
Groups must meet all the following criteria:
- Be youth-led: Founded by young people with over 70% of the leadership being 18-30 years old at the point of application.
- Be lived experience led: Over 70% of the leadership have direct, first-hand experience, past or present, of the oppression they are fighting to change.
- Be social justice focused: Working to change unjust laws, policies, practices, and cultures.
- Be based in and delivering work in England.
- Have an annual income this year of between £10K-£250K.
- Have a group agreement or constitution in place setting out how the group intends to work together. Please note: For non-constituted groups, they can support you with this if you are successful.
- Have a bank account in the name of the organisation, or if not be willing to be fiscally hosted by an organisation that does. Please note: They will support you in finding an appropriate fiscal host if your application is successful, and you request support with this.
- They would especially like to hear from groups currently underrepresented in social justice funding, including:
- Groups that are led by and for youth that:
- are trans and/or queer
- are black and racially minoritised
- are working class
- are from religious minorities
- have a disability
- have migrant or refugee status
- Groups that work at the intersection of multiple forms of oppression.
- Groups that are working on climate justice.
- Groups that centre community organising in their work.
- Groups that are based outside of London.
- Groups that are led by and for youth that:
Ineligibility Criteria
- Individuals or an organisation with only two people.
- Groups who have never been involved in or done any social justice work before.
- Work where the young people do not have full independence for the work and are accountable to a larger organisation. For example:
- a youth advisory board
- a youth-led programme of work that is part of a larger organisation that they must report to
- an organisation that states they are youth-led where more than 30% of the board, senior leadership team and/or wider organisation are over 30.
- organisations who want to launch work on behalf of a young person or group of young people.
For more information, visit The Blagrave Trust.