#iwill Fund 2025

This funding is for projects that help young people in England take part in place-based youth social action. By place-based youth social action, we mean young people playing an active role in addressing the issues of a specific place or area that matter most to local people.

We’re particularly interested in projects that include young people from low-income communities.

In your application, you must show how your project:

  • creates place-based youth social action opportunities for young people
  • will help young people get involved in social action. This should be throughout their life, even after the funding ends.
  • will reach young people who have not taken part in regular social action activities
  • will continue, even after the funding ends
  • involves the voices of young people. They should also be a part of your organisation.

We expect projects to support young people aged up to 20, or up to 25 for those with additional support needs.

See what we’re hoping to fund for details.

We can fund other funders or organisations that run services for young people. If you're a funder, we can delegate authority to you to fund organisations that run these services. This means you can decide which organisations to fund.

We expect you to match the funding we give you. The minimum amount we can match fund is £200,000. For example, if we give you £200,000, you'll need to add at least £200,000 of your own money.

We may also be able to consider in-kind contributions to help meet this amount. These could include non-cash contributions that have a monetary value, such as goods, services, equipment or use of facilities.

This funding is provided by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and The National Lottery Community Fund.

Area
England
Suitable for
Funders, voluntary and community organisations, statutory organisations.
Total available
£3million. We expect to fund 4 - 6 projects.
Application deadline

The deadline to submit an expression of interest (EOI) is 24 September 2025.

Apply

How to apply

Contact us for a conversation about your idea

Email us at: i.willfund@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk.

We’ll put you in contact with someone from our team within 10 days of contacting us.

We’ll ask you how you’ll:

  • help young people take part in place-based youth social action
  • test, deliver and develop your project
  • involve young people
  • encourage local partnerships, so organisations can make bigger change in their communities than if they worked alone
  • do this by March 2027

We’ll want to know more about:

  • the young people taking part, including their age range and their communities
  • the location of your project
  • how long the project will run for
  • the benefits to both young people and the community
  • how you’ll measure the success of the project
  • how you’ll share your learning with others

If you’re eligible to apply for the funding, we’ll send you an expression of interest form.

If it's difficult or impossible for you to complete an expression of interest form

You can contact us if you have any communication support needs. We’re happy to talk about other ways for you to tell us about your idea.

What information you need to apply

We ask for the contact details, home addresses and dates of birth of 2 different people from your organisation. We need a different email address for each person

One person should be someone we can talk to if we have any questions about your project. The other should be a senior member of your organisation, who'll be legally responsible for the funding. Both need to live in the UK.

These 2 people cannot be related. Related can mean:

  • related by marriage
  • in a civil partnership with each other
  • in a long-term relationship with each other
  • related through a long-term partner
  • living together at the same address
  • related by blood

We ask for the legal name of your organisation. And its address. And what type of organisation it is

Check these details before applying. Also, check any registration numbers you have, like a charity number or company number. It will slow down your application if these details are not right.

We ask for details about your organisation’s accounts

We’ll ask for details about your organisation’s finances.

We also ask you to read and agree to our terms and conditions

We’ll send you these to read and agree when we send you an expression of interest form.

What happens after you send us your expression of interest

  1. We’ll consider your expression of interest

    We’ll look at your idea and carry out checks on the information you provide us. You can find out more about the checks we'll carry out on your information.

    We’ll contact you to talk about your form and get more information if we need it.

  2. We’ll let you know if we want to take your application to the next stage

    We’ll aim to tell you our decision in 6 weeks.

    If you’re eligible to apply for funding, we’ll send you an application form.

    If we do not take your application further, we’ll tell you why.

  3. We’ll make our final decision

    We’ll aim to tell you our final decision within 6 weeks of you sending us your completed application form.

    We’ll contact you to let you know if we’re going to fund your project or not. If you’re successful, we’ll tell you what you need to do next.

  4. You can start your project

    As soon as you’ve:
  • signed and returned the funding contract
  • provided us with a bank statement from the last 3 months (so we can pay your funding)
  • had an induction call with a funding officer

You should spend the funding the way you said you would in your application (unless we’ve agreed to something different first). We’ll check in from time to time to see how things are going. Find out more about how to manage your funding.

How we use your personal data

To find out how we use your personal data you can read our Data Protection Statement.

We do checks on the information you give us

As an organisation that gives out public funds, we carry out some checks on the information you give to us. Learn more about our checks.

Who can apply

Who can apply

You can apply if your organisation is a:

  • funder
  • constituted voluntary or community organisation
  • constituted group or club
  • registered charity
  • charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
  • not-for-profit company
  • community interest company (CIC)
  • school (as long as your project benefits and involves the communities around the school)
  • statutory body (including local authorities, town, parish and community councils)
  • community benefit society

You need at least 2 board or committee members who are not related

Related can mean:

  • related by marriage
  • in a civil partnership with each other
  • in a long-term relationship with each other
  • related through a long-term partner
  • living together at the same address
  • related by blood

All companies who apply must have at least 2 directors who are not related in any of these ways. This also applies to companies that are also registered as charities.

Who cannot apply

We cannot accept applications from:

  • individuals
  • sole traders
  • organisations based outside the UK
  • companies that can pay profits to directors, shareholders or members (including Companies Limited by Shares)
  • organisations applying to more than one of our programmes for the same project over the same period. This is because you cannot get duplicate funding for something we're already funding you to do. It’s OK to apply to another programme if you've already had an unsuccessful decision though
  • one organisation applying on behalf of another

We do not accept applications written for you by private businesses or consultants

Be careful of businesses or consultants who say they can support you with your funding applications. They might say they’re acting on the Fund’s behalf, or they’re a preferred supplier of the Fund. They could even offer to write an application for you.

We do not accept applications from these types of businesses or consultants.

But it’s ok to get help from support organisations - like your local authority or Council for Voluntary Services (CVS)

They may be able to give you support and advice on writing your application.

What we're hoping to fund

The projects we fund

We want to fund projects that help young people to take part in place-based youth social action. This could include activities like volunteering, mentoring or improving local environments.

Social action opportunities should:

  • be led by young people
  • be challenging
  • have social impact
  • help young people take part in other opportunities
  • be a regular and meaningful part of a young person’s life
  • encourage young people to reflect on what they've achieved

What your project must to achieve

In your application, you must show how your project:

  • creates place-based youth social action opportunities for young people
  • will help young people engage in social action throughout their life
  • will reach young people who have not taken part in regular social action activities
  • will continue, even after the funding ends
  • will help young people to get involved in social action, even after the funding ends
  • involve the voices of young people. They should also be a part of your organisation

If you’ll be working with children or young people. Or adults at risk

You need to have a policy in place that explains how they’ll be safe. If you get funding you’ll need to follow our expectations on safeguarding children and adults at risk.

The NCVO website has child safeguarding advice and information services.

Our previous projects

You can read more about the projects we've funded through the #iwill fund in previous years.

What you can spend the money on

We can fund:

  • your organisation's project delivery and running costs
  • equipment
  • one-off events
  • staff costs
  • training costs
  • transport
  • utilities
  • volunteer expenses
  • evaluation costs

We cannot fund:

  • retrospective costs (costs for things that have already happened, or you’ve already paid for)
  • alcohol
  • contingency costs, loans, endowments or interest
  • paying someone else to write your application for you
  • fundraising activities (where you use our funding to raise more money)
  • VAT you can reclaim
  • religious activities (we can fund religious organisations if their project benefits the wider community and does not include religious content)
  • statutory activities
  • activities that help children or young people with their schoolwork during school time
  • overseas travel
  • projects that take place outside of the UK
  • activities that make profits for private gain
  • cash that will be given directly to individuals
  • political campaigning and lobbying