Blue Earth Summit opens £15,000 BE:IMPACT prize for small and mid-sized UK charities
Howard Lake | 9 September 2026 | News
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.
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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.
Eligibility
Entries are open to charities registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales, 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, 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 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.
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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.