Funding round up #2 for April 2025
Howard Lake | 16 April 2025 | News
Our second round-up of funding opportunities this month includes funding for new music-making in the UK, Edinburgh communities over the next decade, young entrepreneurs at youth organisations, social innovators, climate justice by youth-led organisations. Plus we have included two technology-specific funders.
RPS Thea Musgrave Fund
The new Royal Philharmonic Society Thea Musgrave Fund has been established to support new music-making in the UK. It is the initiative of celebrated British composer Thea Musgrave and her husband, the conductor Peter Mark.
Two initiatives have been launched in Thea’s name.
Advertisement
RPS Thea Musgrave Composition Grants will support composers writing new work for a soloist, duo, or chamber ensemble. It will enable composers to spend dedicated time shaping ideas with musicians, an experience treasured by Thea has treasured over her career.
RPS Thea Musgrave Performance Grants will encourage more musicians and musical organisations “to delve in, discover and embrace” Thea’s works, and share them with UK audiences.
The closing date for applications for these grants is 11am on Tuesday 1 July 2025.
Thea and Peter have already committed some of the fund towards the new commission that Scottish composer Lisa Robertson is writing as part of the 2025 RPS Composers programme.
Regenerative Futures Fund to support Edinburgh communities
The £15 million Regenerative Futures Fund is designed to help tackle the root-causes of poverty, racism and climate change in Edinburgh.
It is a ten-year community fund for Edinburgh that “puts decision-making power into the hands of those who are most often excluded”.
Its founders intend that the fund is distinctive in terms of its commitment “to meaningful, long term and unrestricted funding, giving organisations the freedom to think and plan for the long-term”.
Grants of up to £100,000 per year will be offered to around 10-15 Edinburgh-based organisations, over 10 years.
The Regenerative Futures Fund is a collaborative of existing funders including The City of Edinburgh Council, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The National Lottery Community Fund, The Robertson Trust, Turn2us Edinburgh Trust and Foundation Scotland.
The funding for the 10-year fund comes from a collaboration between many people and organisations, including philanthropic foundations, local authority, individual philanthropists and through building partnerships with the private sector.
Nearly £6 million has been pledged to date, with the team, lead by Leah Black and Aala Ross, inviting other funders, corporate partners and philanthropists to join the initiative to secure the remainder.
Leah Black, Co-Head said:
“We have a wealth of incredible organisations in Edinburgh who are passionate and capable of delivering the changes we all need to see but unfortunately the current funding landscape can often stand in their way. Traditional funding programmes do little to address the root causes of poverty and inequality; short timescales, restricted single-issue support and overall, a real lack of trust in the organisations delivering on the ground. A radical shake up is needed and that is why we are coming together to launch The Regenerative Futures Fund”.
Community orgs can check eligibility and residents can join the decision making panel.
The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists
The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists invites funding applications throughout the year, and those received are considered by its Charitable Operations Committee at one of its four meetings a year.
The WCIT Charity is a national charity with a City of London home. Its purpose is to use the power of tech for impact through digital inclusion, education, charitable, and public engagement initiatives across the entire UK.
Every year it supports a variety of charities through its grant-making programme and by providing pro bono support to a multitude of organisations.
The current applications deadline is 5pm on 7 May 2025.
However, you should note that the funder reports that it is “currently receiving a high number of requests, which means the success rate for applicants is less than 2%.”
They typically receive 200 applications per quarter, and they typically make just two grants in response. They have £64,920 in funds remaining to be allocated in 2025.
It will be move to a new application portal before 31 August 2025. Applicants with in-progress forms will be informed of the final date “in good time”.
AWS Imagine Grant UK & Ireland
AWS (Amazon Web Services) offers funding in various countries to registered nonprofit charities who are using cloud technology to accelerate their missions.
Its goal is “to empower charitable organisations to prioritise technology as a mission-critical component of their projects by providing support for organisations pursuing technology-driven goals”. As part of the programme it is currently inviting proposals for pilot projects, proofs of concept, or existing programmes that utilise technology in a new or expanded way.
The AWS Imagine Grant UK & Ireland consists of two awards:
The Pathfinder – Generative AI Award
The Pathfinder — Generative AI award will provide support for “a highly innovative, mission-critical project that leverages generative AI”. This project will have the potential to produce a scaled, repeatable solution that directly accelerates mission achievement and may impact an entire industry or field.
Pathfinder projects must be building on existing data strategy and foundation, and the generative AI use case is already defined with implementation in the planning phase (or later).
Award package includes:
- Up to $100,000 USD of unrestricted financial support
- Up to $50,000 USD in AWS Promotional Credit
- Project implementation support from the AWS Generative AI Innovation Center
- Access to AWS training and support
- An opportunity for AWS marketing promotion
Amazon Web Services (AWS) does “reserve the right” to determine actual awarded amounts at its sole discretion.
The Go Further, Faster Award
The Go Further, Faster award will provide support for “highly innovative projects that leverage the cloud”. These projects will have the potential to produce scaled, repeatable solutions and may impact an entire industry or field. “They will be force multipliers for organisations and will include the application of and/or seek integrations with advanced cloud services, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), high performance computing (HPC), Internet of Things (IoT), and more”.
Award package includes:
- Up to $50,000 USD of unrestricted financial support
- Up to $16,000 USD in AWS Promotional Credit
- Access to AWS training and support
- An opportunity for AWS marketing promotion
Again, Amazon Web Services (AWS) reserves the right “to determine actual awarded amounts at its sole discretion”.
Spark Awards for young entrepreneurs
The newly established Ferdinando & Luigi Innocenti Foundation have partnered with Big Change to introduce the Spark Awards 2025, inviting young change-makers in England to apply for funding and support.
The new family foundation supports young people “to discover new passions, have fun, find purpose in life and experience the joy of leading their own personal growth”.
The Spark Awards aim to equip young people with the resources, mentorship and personal development opportunities needed to reimagine the future and are open to anyone aged 18-25 with a new project ready to be implemented that has the potential to spark lasting change for young people.
The awards align with the foundation’s long-term vision for young people to connect to their purpose, motivated to engage in the world and excited about continuing their personal growth.
As part of the initiative, up to ten young entrepreneurs or teams of three could receive a grant of up to £40,000 to bring their big idea to life, alongside a 12-month tailored learning and development programme worth up to £10,000, to create the change they wish to see in their communities and allow young people to thrive.
Up to 10 young leaders, or teams of three, will receive a grant of up to £40,000 to develop their project, and take part in a 12-month tailored learning and development programme run in partnership with The Young Foundation, worth up to £10,000.
Applications close on 20 April 2025.
Look out for the helpful video guides to the process of applying, such as this:
Cambridge Social Innovation Prize
The Cambridge Centre for Social Innovation and Trinity Hall, Cambridge have partnered “to celebrate and support extraordinary social innovators creating social impact through business” across the UK.
The Cambridge Social Innovation Prize recognises there is a gap for mid-career social innovators. The award targets extraordinary individuals with a proven track record but who could benefit from support to reach the next level. Often, they have been so focused on their social impact, they have not had time to invest in their own professional development. The Cambridge Social Innovation Prize aims to help these social innovators grow themselves in order to grow their social impact.
The prize includes a £10,000 cash award for personal and professional development, training or further study, meetings and conferenced. This could take the the form of a sabbatical or study tour. Mentoring from the Cambridge Social Ventures team at Cambridge Judge Business School will help to find interesting new connections and new ways to elevate impactful work.
Up to 4 winners will receive £10,000 each to develop the skills, resources and networks they need to scale the impact of their work, develop a new project, or pursue new possibilities. An expert business advisor will support the winners for 6 to 12 months to develop their own leadership capacity, make connections into Cambridge networks and think through strategic challenges.
The deadline for applications to the Cambridge Social Innovation Prize is 17 April 2025.
Roots & Routes Fund
The Roots & Routes Fund is now open for applications from youth-led organisations in England to address climate justice. It particularly welcomes applications from young people in underrepresented groups.
It combines the funds, expertise and networks of the Blagrave Trust, Co-op Foundation, the Energy Saving Trust Foundation, OVO Foundation, and Impatience Earth.
Applications for the first round of funding, with grants of up to £20,000 available, will close at 23.59 on Monday 2 June 2025.
Potential applicants can register for a webinar on 28 April from 5pm to 6pm which will provide additional guidance on the fund and application process.
Stelios Disabled Entrepreneur Awards
The Stelios Disabled Entrepreneur Awards are offering up to £150,000 to UK-based disabled entrepreneurs.
The Awards, now in their 17th year, are running in partnership with disability charity Leonard Cheshire. They are offering a total of £300,000 in cash prizes:
- 1st place: £150,000
- 2nd place: £100,000
- 3rd place: £50,000
Eligible businesses with a turnover of over £100,000 are invited to apply to the Stelios Disabled Entrepreneur Awards before 16 May 2025.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.