Impetus Connect Fund - Grant round: Youth Employment

Open for applications from organisations supporting young people to prepare for and find work, with a particular focus on young people from ethnic minority backgrounds

Impetus were founded on a belief in social equality – that all young people should have the same chance to succeed whatever their background.

And you cannot believe in social equality without believing in racial equality. We’re committed to addressing systemic racism both as an organisation and through the work we support. Our Connect Fund, Youth Employment Grant round is open now!

The Impetus Connect Fund was set up to partner with charities that support young people from ethnic minority and socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds into employment.

We know that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are twice as likely as their better off peers to be not in education, employment, or training (NEET). There is also clear data showing that young people from ethnic minority backgrounds are disproportionately impacted by unemployment, in particular young people from Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Black communities.

We currently have six fantastic organisations within our Connect Fund, and we are looking for up to three more to join.

Grant Round: Youth Employment

Open for applications from organisations supporting young people to prepare for and find work, with a particular focus on young people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

We are looking for organisations that:

• Support young people to find work or develop work related skills
• Primarily work with young people from ethnic minority and socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds

See detailed eligibility and selection criteria below.

Successful organisations will receive:

• £100k in unrestricted grant funding per year, for two years (with potential to continue thereafter)
• Expertise, coaching and capacity-building support from our Investment team
• Access to our peer learning forums, a chance to network with and learn from other portfolio charities and their senior teams
• Access to sector-based coalitions to influence policy and the national conversation on the issues faced by the young people you serve
• Access to our world-class pro-bono network of specialist advisers including PwC and Bain
• Access to further grants through co-investment with our network of donors

Application deadline: 11:59pm, Sunday 7 April

*A note on language: In the Connect Fund, we are particularly interested in working with organisations that serve young people from Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Black communities, because the data shows these groups are facing the most significant barriers to employment.

However, we are not exclusively focused on these groups, so we will often refer to “young people from ethnic minority backgrounds” more generally. We recognise that language is important, and that others use terms such as “global majority”, “racialised communities”, or “communities experiencing racial inequity”, each with specific and important nuance. In the interests of using language that is familiar and widely understood by potential applicants and broader stakeholders, we have decided to use “ethnic minority backgrounds”, but we acknowledge this is not perfect.

About Impetus

Impetus [is] an impact driven partner that equally aligns with our mission, believes in using enterprise principles for societal good and is prepared to work alongside our team to scale our efforts across the globe.

- Poku Osei, CEO, Babbasa

Impetus has over 21 years’ experience finding, funding, and building the best organisations working in the youth sector. Since 2013, we have given over £92m worth of support to 38 charities, which includes £29.6m 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 charity partners become bigger and better organisations that transform the lives of the young people they serve.