FAQ

No, youth-led creativity is one of the long-term outcomes in our arts and creativity making change priority in our strategy for A Fairer Future. Our current strategy runs until the end of 2027.

No, there are no deadlines. We are accepting applications on a rolling basis.

No, we manage our budget to ensure we can fund on a rolling basis, so please apply at the time that is right for you and your organisation.

We recognise there are different ways for being youth-led. For us, youth-led is where young people hold real and meaningful power to shape decisions, resources and direction at every stage of a project or organisation. In the guidance, we share a few examples of what this could look like:

• Considers who holds power over decisions, money, strategy, priorities, and direction. Goes beyond involving young people and is moving towards ownership by young people.
• Is experimental, imaginative, challenging and innovative in their approach to youth leadership in practice.
• Involves adults but only if they are willing to be challenged, let go of certainty and control, accept risk and discomfort, support rather than direct.

Organisations who can demonstrate this and are working towards formalising this – for example, through an agreement or structure, can apply.

We’re sorry, but no. We want to hear from organisations who are deeply rooted in the communities they work with and places they are in, so we are focusing our support on organisations who are based and working in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. By this, we mean that the organisation is registered in Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland.

In the first iteration of the Youth-Led Creativity programme in 2024, we made grants to 10 organisations based in England. We recently extended these grants by another year so that we can maximise learning opportunities between the funded organisations as well as with those awarded funding in this current phase of the programme.

For 2026 and 2027, we are focusing the funds available on organisations and work in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. During the design of the programme, 'place' was something that the Involving Young People Collective gave a lot of thought to, and a reflection that came out strongly was that, often, UK-wide funding can often become England-centred. By focusing the funding away from England, they wanted to recognise that young people in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland have their own context, cultures, languages, politics, geography and creative communities. So this funding was designed with them in mind.

Yes. We understand that organisations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales may already be working with partners and collaborators in England and/or want to develop their youth-led practice with organisations in other UK nations. The lead organisation applying should be based in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales. If submitting an application as a partnership or collaboration, please share what each partner brings to the work.

We will be working with the Involving Young People Collective on the next iteration of this fund, which will take on board learning and feedback from this fund. The young consultants will be leading the design of any future funding, including eligibility, criteria and the application process. This design process is unlikely to start until 2027.

You must be based in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and be able to demonstrate that you are deeply rooted in the community or communities you are supporting. We’re interested in organisations who are committed to, representative of, and accountable to the community it serves; as well as have a strong understanding of their role in their community and wider ecosystem.

Yes, we welcome partnerships and collaborations. One organisation will need to apply as the 'lead' - they will be treated as the grant-holding organisation in our system and hold responsibility for the progress of the work. There will be space in the Expression of Interest to share more about the nature of the partnership or collaboration.

We'll need the collaboration partners to confirm their involvement. Not all partners have to be registered charities. You'll also nominate two contacts; one from the 'lead' organisation and one of the partners. You can include anticipated costs of setting up and coordinating networks or partnerships in your application.

Please note: The 'lead' organisation will need to be a constituted organisation, be registered in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and have a minimum annual turnover of £50,000.

If you are unsure if you are eligible, get in touch by emailing youthledcreativity@esmeefairbairn.org.uk.

Through this funding, we want to put resources into the creative sectors – arts and culture organisations. This includes, but is not limited to: music, film, performance arts, literature and publishing, design and animation. So we will be prioritising organisations whose primary activities sit within the creative sectors. This includes being a youth charity whose main activities are arts, creativity and culture.

If the work you're seeking funding for meets the criteria for the programme, you're welcome to apply. The creativity-focused criteria is:

Uses art and creativity as a tool for young people to use their voice and influence change in their own lives and the world around them.

What this could look like:

• Intentional about exploring and expanding what youth-led creativity looks like in a curious and open-minded way.
• Uses the arts and creative practice to create change, as identified and led by young people.
• Builds artistic and creative leadership in young people so they can be artists and change-makers.

And if you're not sure, you can send us an email to youthledcreativity@esmeefairbairn.org.uk.

We are only offering multi-year grants and expect most of the grants awarded to be between £120,000 and £150,000.

The minimum grant we would offer is £30,000 across the full term, and maximum grants is £150,000.

It's very unusual for us to give two grants to one organisation at the same time. But you can apply to this fund as your current grant ends. In general, we will accept more than one application for funding (usually, not more than two) from an organisation when:

• There is not any duplication in terms of the programme of work being covered and we aren't being asked to fund the same costs twice
• The organisation is acting as the lead in an application on behalf of a partnership and the other application is for funding for that organisation in its own right and for its own needs

Yes, but the focus for our funding must be on our aims for Youth-Led Creativity.

The age range this programme is targeting is 14 to 30 years old. We recognise different projects are targeted at different age brackets of young people. As long as the young people involved are predominantly between the ages of 14 to 30 years old and the project is youth-led, it would not impact likelihood of success.

In terms of how we came to the 14 to 30 age group, the Involving Young People Collective have had a lot of conversations about age brackets. The main reason we chose 14+ is because ensuring projects were youth-led was very important to us and we felt that youth-led projects may look very differently for younger children compared to older children. We felt the ways in which young people could lead and participate in projects was quite different for 11 year olds compared to older children and younger people.

We are open to organisations and projects that work with specific demographics and groups of young people, as well as broader groups of young people as long as they meet can show they understand and have a track record of centering the voices of young people from communities underrepresented in arts and culture.

We can consider projects that take place in schools but we would need to understand the reason for working in the school (e.g. it is the only available space, it is a safe space or the best means of recruitment). However, we cannot fund any curriculum-based work and our assessment would focus on the extent to which the young people involved were leading the project/programme.

We fund the arts through three areas of our strategy. In our ‘Arts and creativity making change’ priority in A Fairer Future, we fund work towards two outcomes:

• Youth-led creativity, which is the subject of this programme.
• A representative cultural workforce, which you can apply for through our main application process. As demand is very high, we are targeting our support. Learn more in our guidance.

Finally, in Creative, Confident Communities:

• Community-led creativity is one of our funding priorities. It has a strong emphasis on how creativity is a tool for community cohesion, and community regeneration.

We also have the Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund, which is delivered by the Museums Association, and supports a range of projects that bring museum collections closer to people.

In addition to grants, we make social investments. You can learn more about social investment support here. We are also a co-investor in the Arts and Cultural Impact Fund, which is a social investment fund for arts organisations.

We held a Q&A webinar on 16 July, which you can watch back. If you still have a question, you can email us at youthledcreativity@esmeefairbairn.org.uk.