# Blue Earth Summit opens £15,000 BE:IMPACT prize for small and mid-sized UK charities

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2026/09/09/blue-earth-summit-opens-15000-beimpact-prize/
- Published: 2026-09-09T07:07:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Blue Earth Summit has opened applications for BE:IMPACT, a new £15,000 prize fund
for small and mid-sized UK charities. Six finalists will pitch live at the Summit’s
Main Stage at Woolwich Works, London, on 15 October. **

## **How the prize works**

The award is funded by founding partner The Kindness Forecast and runs in the same
format, and on the same stage, as BE:100, Blue Earth Summit’s existing pitch competition
for planet-positive businesses.

Six finalists will be selected from across five categories, including Just Economies&
Social Equity, Resilient Communities, and Conservation & Restoration, and will pitch
live, with the winner decided by a combination of audience voting and expert judges’
scores.

## Advertisement

The **winner receives £10,000 in unrestricted funding**, “together with Main Stage
visibility”, a dedicated profile across Blue Earth Summit and Kindness Forecast 
channels, and press exposure through the BE:IMPACT partner network. **Each of the
five runners-up receives £1,000**, taking the total prize fund to £15,000. Over 
the following year, the winner will also work with the programme’s mentors and a
selected impact producer to develop a campaign film, to be shown at Blue Earth Summit
in 2027.

Judging takes place in two stages: a shortlisting panel scores digital entries during
September, before the live final on 15 October.

![Blue Earth summit panel discussion (2025)](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/
2026/09/Blue-Earth-Summit-2025-Ben-Awin-476.jpg)

Blue Earth 25 panel discussion

## **Eligibility**

Entries are open to a registered charity in the UK, with annual income between £
5,000 and £1 million and an active campaign, or clearly defined launch mission, 
to pitch.

The closing date for entries is **21 September 2026**.

## **Why it’s being launched now**

The organisers cite Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) figures showing that [public donations fell by almost 10 per cent in 2025](https://fundraising.co.uk/2026/03/16/public-donations-down-nearly-10-percent-2024-25/),
from £15.4 billion to £14 billion, with six million fewer people giving than a decade
ago.

**Jon Berry**, Founding Partner of The Kindness Forecast, said:

“The organisations pitching are fighting on every front, ecological, economic, social,
often with very little resource and almost no platform.”

**Will Hayler**, co-founder and CEO of Blue Earth, said the prize is intended to
give small charities “a room full of funders behind them”.

[Blue Earth Summit 2026](https://blueearthsummit.com/) runs from 14 to 16 October
and opens with a screening of KULEANA, a documentary on plastic pollution narrated
by Woody Harrelson. Further details on BE:IMPACT, including the full entry requirements,
are available on the [Blue Earth Summit website](https://blueearthsummit.com).

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