Young People’s Vocational Development Charities Programme
Charities Programme
We fund programmes of work which help ‘NEET’ young people get ready for, and move into, employment. Grants of up to £10,000 per-year are available, with awards for three years open to consideration. Our giving is focussed primarily in London and Kent.
Education is a theme of our support, so we particularly (but not exclusively) look to award grants to programmes of work where young people receive a vocational qualification, as part of their employment progression. We look to support projects with a track record of success, or where the specific model of work is proven to be successful.
We recognise that immediate employment may be beyond some young people initially. Where this is not possible, clear progression routes should be evident – such as moving on to further qualifications or through developing clearly employable skills during the project.
Funding Criteria
Our charity eligibility criteria is:
- Projects that support ‘NEET’ young people to move into employment
- Where successful outcomes can be evidenced
- The project is run by a registered not-for-profit organisation, with at least one set of audited or independently examined annual accounts
- The charity's annual turnover does not exceed £1,000,000
Funding is available for specific projects, rather than general organisational costs. We will, however, consider pro-rata staffing and operational costs where appropriate. Additionally, we will not award a grant that represents more than 20% of the current annual running costs of the organisation.
Funding Priorities
- Work based in London and Kent
- Young people attain a vocational qualification
- The project offers long-term tracking of beneficiaries, to establish quality outcomes
- The project is operating in partnership with other local organisations
What we don't fund
- Work that does not support young people into employment or to become employment ready
- Projects that have no community or charitable element
- Retrospective funding, deficits, or loans
- Organisations which are not a registered not-for-profit organisation
- Organisations with an annual turnover above £1,000,000
- Organisations with reserves of more than 12 months’ expenditure
- Organisations that do not provide direct services to clients
- Organisations which applied to us unsuccessfully within the previous 18 months
- Capital Costs
- Services which are a statutory responsibility
- Projects that are primarily for the advancement of religion or politics (this does not exclude faith-based charities; however, we may ask for a copy of your non-proselytizing policy)
- Overseas work
Applications & Awards
Applications & Deadlines
- Before submitting a full application, please email us with a short outline of the project.
- If you are eligible, we will be in touch with full details of how to make a complete application.
- Applications will be considered at our committee meetings (held in spring and autumn) – with deadlines circa six weeks prior.
- During our assessment, we may request a visit to find out more.
- We will communicate all decisions following the date of the meeting.
- The next deadline to submit a complete application: Friday 14 February 2025
Awards
- If an award is made, the terms of our grant will be included with notification of our decision.
- This will include end of year monitoring, with any future instalments of our grant conditional on this.
Reapplications
- If you have received a grant from us, and this award is coming to an end, we may be able to consider a reapplication from your organisation.
- We are open to reapplications for a further two years, bringing our total funding period to a maximum of five years. We won’t consider a funding period for longer than this.
- Reapplying organisations must display a high degree of project impact, the effective use of these past funds, and what they have learnt over the period of our support.
- Please contact us first before submitting a reapplication for funding.
