Over one million young people are not in employment or full-time education, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds are twice as likely as their better-off peers to not be in education, employment or training (NEET).

As part of our response to this, we’re looking to fund one or two new partner organisations seeking to support young people who are NEET into employment, by developing work-related skills. This is part of our long-term commitment on skills and employment. See detailed eligibility and selection criteria below.

Successful organisations will receive:

• £100k in core, unrestricted funding for an initial period of one year (with potential for us to become a longer-term funder)
• Hands-on support from our Investment Team to help shape your plans and build organisational capabilities for impact and growth
• Support from our network of pro bono experts on anything from strategy planning and financial modelling to legal support
• Access to our peer learning forums, providing training, networking and co-learning opportunities with 23 partners across our portfolio
• Access to sector-based coalitions to influence policy and the national conversation on issues faced by the young people we serve
• Access to additional grants through our network of donors

We have 23 years’ experience finding, funding, and building the best organisations working in the youth sector. Since 2013, we have given £100m worth of support to our partner organisations, including £32.6m of core unrestricted funding.

But we are more than a funder. Our backing comes with focused, structured, hands-on support from our experienced Investment team and network of pro bono experts across all aspects of our charity partners’ work - deepening their impact, upskilling their leadership and helping them achieve sustainable growth. Our approach is working - our portfolio partners become stronger, bigger and better organisations that transform the lives of the young people they serve.

Our non-financial support is valued highly by our portfolio partners. In a recent survey of our partner CEOs, all rated our support as either delivering significant or transformational impact.

Impetus is seeking applications from non-profit organisations that:

• Seek to support young people (age 16-24) who are NEET and from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Deliver work-related skills (either vocational or essential)
• Aim for employment outcomes for those young people

Our selection process is intended to assess whether organisations have:

• Programmes with a track record of, or high potential to deliver measurable, positive employment outcomes for young people
• A committed leadership team, eager to engage with the Impetus partnership, and sufficient organisational capacity to absorb our support
• Financial sustainability and the long-term potential to grow

We are particularly interested in hearing from organisations who:

• Deliver vocational skills training (i.e. focusing on specific sectors or roles)
• Have leadership teams who are representative of the young people they serve

All interested organisations should first check they meet the eligibility criteria from the following sections.

1. Programme requirements

Your programme should:

• Be focused on supporting NEET young people (age 16-24) into employment through the development of skills (either vocational, essential or both). This work should represent at least 50% of the young people that you work with.
• Be delivering their youth employment work in England, Wales or Scotland.
• Focus on young people who are or have experienced socio-economic disadvantage

2. Organisational requirements

Your organisation must:

• Be committed to improving employment outcomes and managing and refining your programme to achieve them.
• Be a UK-registered charity, social enterprise or non-profit organisation.
• Be working with a minimum of 100 young people either directly, or indirectly.
• Have the equivalent of at least 5 FTE members of staff.
• Have a minimum turnover of £250k, based on last audited / examined accounts.
• Have achieved at least break-even in two of the past three years, OR you must hold at least two months of operating costs in your reserves.
  

Our research shows that certain young people are more likely to be NEET. For this reason, we are particularly interested in organisations working with young people who:

• Are lower qualified (without GCSEs or A-levels).
• Are from Pakistani, Black, Mixed, or Gypsy or Irish Traveller backgrounds.
• Have SEND
• Are looked after children, or who have experience of the care system

3. Other considerations

Through the selection process, we will also be considering the extent of applicant organisations’ own commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion - through organisational practices and policies, incorporation of lived experience into programme design and delivery, and representation across the staff team and Board.

We have designed an initial application process that focuses only on information that is relevant to our investment decisions and minimises the demands on applicants' time - the majority of information should be easily accessible to organisational leads. 

If you think you are what we are looking for (as outlined above), and you would like to be considered as a potential Impetus charity partner, please complete the following steps. 

Please note, the below timeframe is indicative.

Compensation 

We appreciate our selection process is time-consuming for applicants. Therefore, any organisation that makes it to our site visit stage and is unsuccessful will be compensated for their time. Similarly, organisations that go through our partnership building and due diligence process and are unsuccessful will also be compensated for their time. 

Inclusivity 

At Impetus we are actively trying to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of our funding rounds. If you require any adjustments to enable you to engage with our process, or if you would like to provide any feedback on the accessibility or inclusivity of our process, please do email us at skills@impetus.org.uk. 

Find out more about our commitment to embedding diversity in our work. 

Your data 

All information collected is used and stored in order to make informed decisions throughout the application process. We will only ever share this information externally if it is with pre-vetted individuals providing external scrutiny or support during our selection process, who will have signed a confidentiality agreement. 

Our privacy policy has more information about how we use your personal data.