Funding Priorities
This information on this page was last updated on 23 October 2024.
Funding Priorities
Funding Priorites for Trailblazer Fund and Catalyser Fund
Our Trailblazer Fund and our Catalyser Fund are accepting applications for work that meets any of our six funding themes (Early Years, Disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent young people, Youth Justice System, Young People Facing Barriers, Organisations & the Workforce and Young Adults) and for work taking place in any area of England.
There are some regions and funding themes where we currently receive a relatively low number of applications from and therefore fund less than we would like to. We would like to see more applications from:
Regions: East of England, North East and West Midlands.
Funding Themes: Disabled, d/Deaf and neurodivergent young people, Early Years and Youth Justice System.
Funding for these areas will still remain competitive.
We currently receive a high number of applications from London and the North West and for work with Young People Facing Barriers - so success rates for these areas is lower.
Who we fund
Take a look at this map to see who we currently fund and where in the country they work.
You can learn more about the grants Youth Music has made since 2015, on the 360 Giving website where you can also access standardised grants data from many different funders.
Our annual report provides further insight into our funding decisions.
Updates on recent Grant Awards
Trailblazer Fund Round 1
Trailblazer awards grants of up to £30,000.
- We received 113 applications totalling just under £2.6million
- We awarded 39 grants totalling just over £860,000
- Around 1 in 3 applications were successful.
You can see the full list of grants awarded in this blog.
Trailblazer Fund Round 2
- We received 59 applications totalling just over £1.47million
- We awarded 23 grants totalling just over £600,000
- Just under 40% of applications were successful.
You can see the full list of grants awarded in this blog.
Trailblazer Fund Round 3
- We received 155 applications totalling nearly £3.7million
- We awarded 37 grants totaling £908,521.
- Just under 24% of applications were successful, this fell to 14% in the North West and 9% in London, where we recieved an exceptionally high number of applications.
You can see the full list of grants awarded in this blog.
Trailblazer Fund Round 4
- We received 67 applications totalling just over £1.6million
- We awarded 27 grants totalling just over £702,666
- Just over 40% of applications were successful.
You can see the full list of grants awarded in this blog.
Trailblazer Fund Round 5
- We received 162 applications totalling over £4million
- We awarded 36 grants totaling £941,561.
- Under 25% of applications were successful, this fell to under 12% in London, where we continue to recieve high numbers of applications.
You can see the full list of grants awarded in this blog.
Trailblazer Fund Round 6
- We received 117 applications totalling nearly £2.8million
- We awarded 27 grants totaling £708,343.
- Under 25% of applications were successful, this fell to 15% in London, where we recieved the highest number of applications.
Trailblazer Fund Round 7
- We received 173 applications totalling over £4.1million.
- We are currrently making decisions, and we anticipate success rates being less than 20% (i.e. less than 1 in 5 applications will be successful).
Catalyser Fund Round 1
Catalyser Fund awards grants of between £30,001 and £300,000.
- We received 153 applications totalling nearly £24million.
- We awarded 31 grants totalling just over £4.5million
- Around 1 in 5 applications were successful.
- Grants awarded ranged from £69,520 to £300,000.
You can see the full list of grants awarded in this blog.
Catalyser Fund Round 2
- We received 139 applications totalling nearly £22million.
- We awarded 29 grants totalling just over £3.75million
- Around 1 in 5 applications were successful.
- Grants awarded ranged from £75,000 to £200,000.
You can see the full list of grants awarded in this blog.
Catalyser Fund Round 3
- We recieved 185 applications totalling just over £26.5million.
- We awarded 32 grants totalling nearly £3.8million
- Less than 1 in 5 applications were successful.
- Grants awarded ranged from £49,760 to £200,0000.
You can see the full list of grants awarded in this blog.
Catalyser Fund Round 4
- We recieved 283 Expression of Interests totalling nearly £43million against a budget of just over £5million.
- 65 applicants totalling £7.1million have been invited through to Stage 2.
- We anticipate success rates at Stage 2 will be 60%.