The Henry Smith Foundation: Shout!

Overview

Overview

• Grant amount: up to £240,000 (£60,000 per year)
• Length: Four years
• Focus: supporting young people aged 14 to 25 with experience of the care system, or are LGBT+ or have a learning disability/neurodivergence.
• Eligible organisations: formally registered, not-for-profit organisations with a charitable purpose (e.g. registered charity, CIC, community benefit society).
• Annual income (as shown in your most recent published accounts): must be below £5 million.
• Location: They aim to fund organisations across all four UK nations. They encourage applications from Northern Ireland, Wales and rural communities.

About the programme

This grant fund is part of their Building Independence programme, which funds services that support young people through the transition into adulthood. More information on their funding priorities and strategy can be found on their website.

The Shout! Fund supports independent non-statutory advocacy services that help young people speak up, make informed choices, and secure their rights. This could include casework, one-to-one, group or peer advocacy, as long as it meets our key features of advocacy outlined in these guidelines.

You don’t need to call your work ‘advocacy’ to apply. If your work helps young people navigate systems (especially where they are being excluded, misunderstood or marginalised) and move forward on their own terms, they want to hear from you. 

Their focus is on young people aged 14 to 25, but they recognise that services don’t always neatly fit into age brackets. Your services don’t need to be exclusively working with this age group, but you should be able to show a clear understanding of the specific issues they face and how your support meets their needs.

Beneficiaries

Shout! is focused on reaching young people who are too often marginalised or overlooked in mainstream systems. 

They are focusing on organisations supporting:

• Care-experienced young people – They know care experience isn’t always formally recorded, and they don’t expect young people to provide proof. Their understanding of young people who are care-experienced includes those who’ve been in foster care, residential care, kinship care, or have left care.
• LGBT+ young people – They welcome applications from organisations supporting young people across the full spectrum of LGBT+ identities. They will fund organisations that work inclusively and affirm the rights, identities, and lived experiences of all LGBT+ people.
• Young people with a learning disability and/or neurodivergence – They recognise that not everyone has a formal diagnosis of a learning disability or neurodivergence. They welcome applications from organisations that offer support without requiring a diagnosis and take an inclusive approach.

To be eligible your work must support one of these groups. If you work with a broader community but it includes a significant proportion of people from these groups, you are still welcome to apply. However, you will need to show clearly why your organisation is well placed to support them.

What will they fund

You don’t need to call your work ‘advocacy’ to apply - they are interested in funding services that support young people to speak up, make choices, and secure their rights. If your work aligns with these key features, they encourage you to apply.

• Person-led – The young person being supported sets the agenda. You walk alongside them, not ahead or over them - unless that’s what they want or ask for.
• Forward-focused – You support young people to move toward goals that matter to them, whether it’s finding a home, accessing support, building confidence, or challenging a system. You should be able to show how you know when progress has been made, or a goal has been achieved.
• Independent – The service is not tied to care or treatment provision or a particular authority. Staff can act in the young person’s best interests and represent their wishes without conflict.
• Support individuals with rights, decisions, and systems – You help young people to:
  • Understand their options
  • Navigate services
  • Be involved in decisions about their life
  • Challenge unfair treatment
  • Speak up about what matters to them
• Self-improvement – Whether through one-to-one work, group spaces, peer support or self-advocacy, your service builds young people’s skills, confidence, and ability to express their needs now and in the future.
• Accessible and inclusive – Your support adapts to individual communication needs, cultural backgrounds, identities and lived experience. It is trauma-informed, gender-informed and culturally-informed.
• Regular engagement that isn’t time-limited – Whether in one-to-one or group settings, your service provides opportunities for regular engagement over time, allowing young people to build trusting relationships.

If you’re unsure whether your service fits, please contact for an informal conversation.

Eligibility criteria

Your organisation also needs to meet the following eligibility criteria:

• Be a formally registered, not-for-profit organisation with a charitable purpose (e.g. CIO, CIC, community benefit society)
• Be based in the United Kingdom, and ensure the work you are applying for supports people living here
• Have an annual income of £5 million or less, as shown in your most recent published accounts. There is no lower limit, and we welcome applications from smaller organisations
• Have audited or independently inspected published annual accounts
• If you already have a grant from the Henry Smith Foundation, please email buildingindependence@henrysmith.foundation and speak with them first.
• Have an up-to-date safeguarding policy and practice

Funding Level & Notes

• The Shout! Fund expects to make around 20 grants of up to £240,000 over four years (up to £60,000 per year).
• They will fund up to 50% of your projected annual running costs up to this amount.
• Their preference is to make flexible grants to your organisation to support the infrastructure that helps you deliver strong, sustainable advocacy. This might include core costs, including rent, utilities, and staff salaries, as well as costs associated with staff wellbeing.
• They are open to discussing further restrictions for the grant and funding where preferred or needed.
• They believe that fair pay is an important part of strong, sustainable organisations. They encourage applications that include realistic salary costs, annual salary increases, and measures that support the wellbeing of your team.