A Fairer Future priorities

We have five priority areas where we believe we can make the most effective contribution; using our existing knowledge and relationships, by working at the intersections of issues and by building our understanding through working with others, especially those with experience of the issues we are trying to address.

• Arts and creativity making change
• Children and young people's rights
• Racial justice
• Gender justice
• Migrant justice

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:

Across all our priorities in A Fairer Future, we are interested in working with organisations who can demonstrate how diversity, equity and inclusion runs through all they do and how they work.

We are especially keen to support organisations led by the people they serve. For this, we have adopted the DEI Data Standard to define what we mean by leadership.

We commit to funding more organisations led by communities experiencing racial inequity, and we aim to give more long-term funding and support to organisations working to advance racial justice. We will also work with partners to identify, fund, and nurture smaller organisations led by communities experiencing racial inequity that are working towards our impact goals.

Through our support in A Fairer Future, we want to recognise that tackling injustice – particularly for people who are affected by systemic injustice – requires resource, capacity and emotional resilience.

Climate change:

Across all our aims, we are keen to support work which addresses the causes and impacts of climate change.

1. Representative cultural workforce led by a new and diverse generation of cultural leaders.

We want to support work that:

• Creates change in the cultural sector to ensure there is equal access to creative, technical and administrative careers for people who identify as D/deaf, disabled or neurodivergent, are from communities experiencing racial inequity, or who are economically disadvantaged.
• Addresses barriers to career progression due to systemic injustice in the cultural sector.
• Builds the capacity of a new, inclusive generation of cultural leadership, creating change and encouraging diverse ideas, perspectives, and experiences to inform whose stories get told and how.
• Is ambitious and can contribute to embedding change long-term to address injustice, particularly those that overlap with our other priorities.

We will consider work that involves Further Education and Higher Education - particularly where there is a need for specific technical or artistic skills.

Targeting our support

We make 8-12 grants a year towards a more representative cultural workforce. As demand is very high, we encourage applicants to consider how closely their work fits what we want to support as this informs our decision-making.

We will prioritise funding organisations that:

• Are led by and for underrepresented groups that need support to grow their work
• Have strong networks and evidence of contributing to long-term change and share power with underrepresented groups.

We also want to allocate more of our funding outside London, and to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Case studies

• Culture&
• Graeae Theatre

2. Youth-led creativity builds on young people's power to make change, using creativity to enhance their lives, develop their careers, and influence the world around them.

Closed to applications

Together with Esmée's Involving Young People Collective, we have reimagined the guidance and application process for work towards Youth-Led Creativity. In 2024, we will make 8 to 12 grants, totalling £1m. We closed to applications on 15 March 2024.

Learn more about the Youth-Led Creativity programme.

1. A shift in early years provision to ensure that young children (0-5) and their families facing barriers have quality support.

Closed to applications

We are closed to applications for this outcome. We want to work more closely with our partners and the organisations we are currently supporting, as well as be more focused and strategic in our support.

We may invite applications where we think we can best add value, but these will be small in number and by exception.

2. Fewer young people, particularly those with SEND and/or experiencing racial inequity, in contact with the youth justice system, and excluded from school.

We want to support work that:

• Is designed and driven by young people with lived experience of the youth justice, school exclusion and care systems
• Challenges injustice in systems for young people, particularly for those experiencing racial inequity, disabled young people and those with special educational needs.
• Goes beyond delivery of preventative programmes to share learning and spread effective approaches in statutory services.

Case studies

• Power The Fight

3. Children's rights are better met, with specialist legal support and better protection for marginalised groups.

We want to support work that:

• Is driven and shaped by young people with experience of injustice.
• Improves and protects the rights of marginalised children and young people through influencing and strategic litigation.
• Builds understanding of children’s legal rights amongst organisations working with children and young people, as well as their confidence to identify issues earlier and better use the law.

Case studies:

• Just for Kids Law

4. Young people (14-25) with experience of injustice create and lead positive change, and shape decision making.

We want to support work that:

• Engages young people with experience of injustice, building their capacity to lead and secure change in unjust systems.
• Supports young people to develop creative solutions to social justice and environmental issues as well as build strategic alliances to create change.
• Enables young people to increase their understanding of the root causes of social injustice, with pathways to develop their changemaking and activism.

Using what we have learned from funding youth activism, we will continue to invest in young people’s drive, talent and passion to tackle issues of injustice and inequality that they experience, through organising and campaigning for change.

Case studies:

• The 4FRONT Project
• We Belong

5. An end to the ‘cliff edge’ of support for young people leaving care.

Closed to applications:

We are currently supporting a cohort of organisations working in this area and are focusing our time on working more closely with them to achieve our desired outcomes. We may make new grants where we identify a gap in one of our focus areas, but these will be small in number and by exception.

Please note we are unlikely to fund work with care leavers under other outcomes and priorities. However, if applying for support for work with care leavers under another outcome or priority, please read the relevant guidance to understand whether there is a good fit for your work.

What we hope to achieve from our work:

• More care leavers develop and sustain stable, supportive, and fulfilling relationships.
• Young people leaving care have more say over the decisions that matter to them, their voices are listened to, and acted on.
• There is consistent and good quality support for care experienced young people that leads to successful transitions and independence.
• The system responds quickly to messages from research, learning about good practice and the voices of young people. There is challenge when things go wrong and sharing and spreading of what works well.

Learn more: Young People Leaving Care Learning Programme

1. Organisations working towards racial justice across our strategy, led by people experiencing racial inequity, are financially resilient and socially transformative.

Initially, we are seeking to work with a small number of partner organisations who can lead this work. We want to work with partners who:

• Are driven and shaped by communities experiencing racial inequity.
• Have an infrastructure role, supporting and building the capacity of frontline organisations that are led by communities experiencing racial inequity, and may have experience of delivering grants.
• Are leading the way itself or as part of a partnership or collaboration to create transformative change towards racial justice.
• Are able to operate regionally or nationally, or where the approach has the potential to spread by sharing learning and replication elsewhere.
• Have the relationships and networks to directly reach and engage with communities experiencing racial inequity.

Case studies:

• Comic Relief's Global Majority Fund
• Imkaan
• Rosa: Rise Fund

2. Racial equity in leadership is challenged and changed.

We want to support work that:

• Is driven and shaped by communities experiencing racial inequity.
• Is challenging the status quo and developing solutions to shift what leadership looks like to create racial equity, and influence systemic change.
• Supports and builds the capacity of a new, inclusive and racially diverse, generation of leaders and organisations who are influencing change and developing solutions to create a fairer future

Case studies:

• Anti Racist Cumbria
• GirlDreamer
• Stuart Hall Foundation

3. Harm caused by racial injustice in systems, policy and practice is reduced.

We want to support work that:

• Changes legislation, policy and practice to address racial injustice.
• Is driven and shaped by people with experience of racial inequity, so that they can themselves have a direct impact on changing the system.
• Brings to light and challenges racial injustice in systems, holding those in power to account, and influencing change.
• Enables and supports a movement for change, ensuring smaller and grassroots organisations’ voices are represented and amplified.

Case studies:

• Anthony Walker Foundation
• Runnymede Trust
• StopWatch

1. Gender-based violence is reduced through the delivery of preventative work.

We want to support work that:

• Develops and tests interventions to reduce gender-based violence.
• Influences policy and practice on the role of preventative approaches and makes the case for statutory support for preventative work.
• Challenges and addresses the normalisation of harmful attitudes, objectification, and violence at an early stage, as well as in communities.
• Takes a collaborative approach that enables and supports a movement for change.

Case studies:

• Tender

2. Trans and non-binary people's rights are recognised and protected.

We want to support work that:

• Is driven and shaped by trans and non-binary people, so that they can themselves have a direct impact on changing the system.
• Brings to light and challenges harmful attitudes and narratives about Trans and non-binary people, and builds understanding of the issues amongst the public and decision-makers.
• Takes a collaborative approach that enables and supports a movement for change.

Case studies:

• Gendered Intelligence

3. Policy, practice, and the law better meets the needs of women experiencing multiple challenges and discrimination.

We want to support work that:

• Is driven and shaped by women experiencing multiple challenges and discrimination, so that they can themselves have a direct impact on changing the system.
• Goes beyond service delivery, and changes legislation, policy and practice.
• Brings to light and challenges gender injustice in systems – particularly for women experiencing multiple challenges and discrimination.
• Improves access to justice for women experiencing multiple challenges and discrimination.

Case studies:

• Agenda
• Imkaan

4. The negative impacts of the criminal justice system on women and their families are reduced.

We want to support work that:

• Is driven and shaped by women with experience of the criminal justice system and their families, so that they can themselves have a direct impact on changing the system.
• Goes beyond service delivery, and changes legislation, policy and practice.
• Takes a collaborative approach that enables and supports a movement for change, ensuring the voices of smaller and grassroots organisations are represented and amplified – particularly those led by and for women experiencing multiple challenges and discrimination.

Case studies:

• Agenda
• Hibiscus Initiatives

For all three long-term outcomes, we're looking to support work that:

• Is driven and shaped by migrants, so that they can themselves have a direct impact on changing the system.
• Builds and uses evidence to design a better migration system.
• Changes legislation, policy and practice to meet the needs of migrants.
• Brings to light and challenges injustice in the migration system, countering misinformation.
• Builds understanding of the issues with local communities, the wider public, and decision-makers.
• Supports and amplifies the voices of migrants, enabling more stories of migration to be told and heard.
• Takes a collaborative approach that enables and supports a movement for change, ensuring the voices of smaller and grassroots organisations are represented and amplified.

Case studies:

• Asylum Reform Initiative
• Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
• Migration Exchange
• Migrant Voice
• Right to Remain