Ideas and Pioneers Fund

Our fund focuses on both your idea for social change, as well as you as a person and your potential.

We will fund:

• individuals
• groups or collectives working together (you don’t need to be a registered organisation)
• organisations of any legal structure with a turnover of under £150,000

You can find examples of our recent grantees in our grants database here.

In addition to a grant of up to £20,000, to help explore your idea you will have access to a package of optional wraparound support, such as training and mentoring. There will also be opportunities to meet and learn from other grant holders who are also supported through the Fund.

We want to fund individuals or groups aged 18–30* to explore their ideas for social change. We focus on people who:

• Have a connection to the idea they want to explore. We will prioritise funding to people who have personally experienced the issue they want to work on.
• Are ready to take action. You have a strong sense of your idea or vision and what you would do next if you were successful in receiving funding.
• Face barriers in accessing grant funding. We want our support to reach people who would benefit from it the most, including those who haven’t had the opportunity to use grant funding before.

*We prioritise funding to people aged 18–30, but we do consider applications from those aged 30 and over. We cannot accept applications from those under 18. 

We want to fund ideas that are:

• Challenging injustice. We want to support ideas that show a clear vision to help build a better society. Your idea will contribute to shifting power and challenging and transforming the root causes of systemic oppression. We recognise that what happens at the small scale reflects what happens at the large scale, so we are equally interested in ideas working at a local level as those working at a national level.
• Emerging. We want to fund ideas that are still forming and help your idea take shape. You will have a clear sense of the learning and experimenting you need to do to progress your idea.
• Long-term potential. You can see the long-term potential of your idea, and you’re motivated to make change beyond the lifetime of the funding.

When we are looking at your application, we will consider not just what you are working on, but how you intend to work. We will be looking for indications that you are considering some or all of the following:

1. Are you considering the various personal experiences of others who have a connection to the issue you are exploring? 
2. Are you hoping to work with others? You may not know who you’d like to work with yet, but you intend to explore this during the grant. This could look like collaboration or co-creation. 
3. Are you centering care for yourself and others in the work? 
4. Are you paying people fairly? We understand that this may look different in different contexts; for example, you may involve volunteers. However, we expect to see those with less access to resources compensated for their contributions.