National Citizens Service Launches 2023 Grants Programme

Funding for not-for-profit organisations delivering community-based experiences at a grassroots level for young people (16- to 17-year-olds) in England.

Starting this year, National Citizens Service Trust (NCST) has announced it will be awarding two different types of grants to local organisations delivering community-based experiences at a grassroots level, for the first time.

  • Open to All Grants – funding through year-round grants for regularly scheduled programmes that are embedded in young people’s local communities with structure and support from NC, but locally tailored by the group. NCS will offer grants to deliver Open to All programmes across regions and the grant amount will be based on the number of young people between the defined age range in those regions. A total of £13 million to £15 million is available for the period 2023-2025 with 18 grants for specific geographic areas based on English Regions and Combined Authorities to deliver across that area. These grants are sized by NCS Trust.
  • Targeted Grants – funding may be given for scaling existing intervention, or trialling a new innovation, with targeted groups of young people. Between £5 million and £7 million is being made available during 2023 to 2025 with both small grants (£10,000 to £100,000) and large grants (£100,000 to £500,000) to create opportunities for national or regional organisations, alongside small grassroots organisations.

Grants will be awarded for a duration of up to 31 March 2025.

The funding can be used for core costs, eg, staff costs, central management, venue costs.

The funding is intended for projects for young people that meet all of the following objectives:

  • Develop life skills and support independent living
  • Build employability and work-readiness
  • Provide opportunities for volunteering and social action
  • Enable social mixing of young people from all backgrounds

For this funding programme, young people refers to 16 and 17 year olds but may also include other persons who are 15 years old or have attained the age of 18 but are under the age of 25 years.

Applications will be considered from the following types of organisations:

  • Non-profit
  • Community Interest Company (CIC)
  • Voluntary or community group/organisation
  • Registered charity
  • Co-operative
  • Local authority
  • Charity Incorporated Organisations (CIO)

NCS is encouraging consortia applications for Open to All grants.

Applications will be accepted from 13 February 2023 (11am) until they close on 20 March 2023 (9am).

(This report was the subject of a GRANTfinder Newsflash.)