An update on our Youth-Led Creativity funding, which launched earlier this year. Learn more about the design of the fund, our approach to assessing applications and what’s next.
Designing the fund
When designing this fund we wanted to make it as easy and accessible to apply to as possible, cutting all the unnecessary red tape and focusing on what really mattered to us - learning about the organisation's incredible work. The process of designing this fund was really about challenging how the grantmaking process happens and innovation in order to reduce barriers to funding for a wide range of organisations who are truly youth-led.
Francesca, Consultant with the Involving Young People Collective
Co-designed from the outset with Esmée’s Involving Young People Collective, the Youth-Led Creativity programme was a chance to do things differently by putting young people and the Involving Young People Values at the heart of the process and programme. This led to a number of changes to our normal process and a couple of firsts.
- We changed our normal eligibility criteria so there was no minimum annual turnover requirement.
- A key criteria added by our young consultants for applicants to be assessed against was how they prioritise the joy and care of young people.
- Accessibility was an important consideration during the development of the programme and we worked with NeuDice who gave us valuable feedback on our guidance. We also worked with People First Ltd and Malini Chakrabarty, a young illustrator, to create EasyRead guidance, which was more accessible and user friendly.
- We also accepted video and audio applications for the first time.
As a person with a passion for making things accessible and neurodivergent friendly. It was great to work in a group setting focusing on how to make all stages accessible and flexible. I felt valued and a part of the team when sharing my views with Esmée staff members.
Aaliyah, Consultant with the Involving Young People Collective
How expressions of interest were assessed
In addition to co-designing the programme and application process, our Involving Young People Collective have led on the assessment process, supported by Esmée staff. This stage of the process took 17 weeks and comprised the following steps.
- Step 1
Every expression of interest was reviewed by two consultants, each scoring the application in line with the criteria.
- Step 2
This was supplemented by three group discussions with all the consultants so they could discuss the expressions of interest collectively, reaffirming their determination to only fund projects that were youth-led and not just involving young people. These discussions helped them to take into account variations in scoring and come to a consensus over what stood out for them in the applications, which helped them to create a longlist for further consideration.
- Step 3
Esmée staff carried out rapid due diligence checks on the longlisted applications, checking they met the criteria on governance structure, their financial viability, and anything that might need further inquiry during the assessment.
- Step 4
The applications were discussed again collectively by the consultants and then ranked using a traffic light system to identify the strongest applications. Consultants also took into consideration the spread and range of work in shortlisting.
- Step 5
Working together, young consultants and Esmée staff considered how many applications to shortlist and invite to the next stage. As we had a budget of £1m to make 8 to 10 grants, we agreed to invite 17 applicants who were the closest fit to the criteria to the next stage.
This was a difficult process with so many strong applications. We recognise there is a tension between wanting to give the opportunity to more applicants to share more detail on their plans and not wanting to waste organisations’ valuable time if they weren’t likely to be funded.
Applications received and feedback given
In the six weeks of being open to applications, we received a phenomenal 357 eligible applications, with requests totalling £34.3m.
See an overview of expressions of interest received.
With far more applications than we had anticipated and more time needed for the assessment process, we have, unfortunately, not been able to provide individual feedback. However, we have gathered feedback from the consultants who shared what made the shortlisted applications stand out, which we hope is helpful to applicants in understanding how decisions were made.
See the feedback on applications provided by the young consultants.
We recognise that both the youth sector and arts sector are really struggling for funding right now. In developing this fund, we wanted to be open and equitable whilst being conscious of raising a lot of interest for a small number of grants. We have tried to be clear about what we were offering, and for the process to be relatively light touch and accessible, to avoid organisations investing too much of their valuable time. For all of us involved in assessing the applications, it’s been fantastic to learn about so much good work happening in this area, so we truly are grateful for the time people have taken to submit an expression of interest. We will be looking at all the feedback we receive about the programme and the application process to inform how we can do things better.
Laura Lines, Funding Manager Lead for A Fairer Future
Next steps
After inviting the 17 shortlisted applicants to the next stage, consultants and Esmée staff have together been meeting with each of them to discuss their plans further, and gather more information. This will be used to write a joint recommendation for our Trustees to consider in September.
We’re immensely grateful to everyone who took the time to submit an application – we especially appreciate all the young people involved in developing the applications.
This has been a new way of working for us at Esmée and we’re committed to co-designing each stage with our young consultants. Future funding for Youth-Led Creativity will take into account learning from this process. We also want to explore this with the group of funded organisations through the Learning Programme that will run alongside the funding. With this in mind, we hope to share what our next steps for further Youth-Led Creativity funding in early 2025.
