UK Youth and Pears Foundation have launched a new £10 million fund to champion an approach that works: providing multi-year, unrestricted funding alongside targeted capacity-building support to small youth organisations.
The aim of the Fund is to strengthen the financial resilience and capacity of small youth and outdoor learning organisations across the UK.
They aim to achieve this through two key outcomes:
Outcome 1: Improved Financial Sustainability, supporting grantees to invest time and resource in strategic, organisational development through our multi-year unrestricted funding grant programme
Outcome 2: Increased Capability and Organisational Resilience through our capacity building programme
Organisations can apply for multi-year unrestricted funding of up to 10% of annual turnover. This approach ensures that funding is proportional to the size and capacity of your organisation to help ensure sustainability and resilience.
Who can apply?
This fund is open to organisations with an annual turnover of less than £500,000 that are delivering services to young people based within our eligibility areas in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Eligibility is based on the communities and young people you support, rather than head office location. To be eligible, you must be delivering services for young people who are based within one of the key geographical areas below (top 3 deciles of the IMD).
There is no minimum threshold for the number of young people supported, if your organisation supports even one young person from any of the eligible locations below, you are eligible to apply.
How to apply
They have developed a two-stage application process to identify organisations that will benefit most from multi-year unrestricted support while keeping requirements proportionate and accessible. They have set clear eligibility criteria to ensure funding reaches those who need it most, discourages ineligible applications early, and reduces time spent by applicants where possible.
Click here to apply on their website.
The deadline to submit an expression of interest is 11.59pm on Wednesday 06 May 2026.
Those successful at the EOI stage will be invited to apply.
The deadline to submit applications is 11.59pm on Tuesday 02 June 2026.
