The Paul Hamlyn Foundation (PHF) stands as one of the UK’s leading independent grant-making organizations, recognized for its commitment to promoting social justice, cultural understanding, and opportunities for all. Among its most dynamic initiatives is the Ideas and Pioneers Fund, a unique funding programme designed to empower individuals and small groups with the freedom, resources, and support to explore transformative ideas for social change.
Launched with the belief that great social innovations often come from those most directly affected by systemic injustice, this fund encourages creative experimentation and long-term thinking. By providing grants of up to £20,000, along with mentorship and learning opportunities, PHF invites pioneers to test, learn, and shape bold visions that have the potential to redefine how society operates.
At its heart, the Ideas and Pioneers Fund recognizes that the path to meaningful change begins with curiosity, courage, and experimentation. Unlike traditional funding streams that prioritize established organizations or well-developed projects, this fund intentionally focuses on emerging ideas and the people behind them.
PHF believes that those who have been let down or marginalized by existing systems often possess the most authentic insight into what must change. The Foundation’s goal is to give these individuals — and the communities they represent — the financial space and moral support to imagine alternatives and test new pathways for justice, equality, and empowerment.
Whether working individually or collectively, applicants are encouraged to use this fund as a springboard to explore, test, and learn, rather than deliver a finished product. The emphasis is not on outcomes alone, but on learning and discovery — understanding what works, what doesn’t, and why.
The aim of the Ideas and Pioneers Fund is rooted in PHF’s long-standing mission: to support imaginative individuals who are driven to build a more just and inclusive society. The Foundation understands that innovation often begins in uncertainty — in those untested, sometimes risky spaces where new ideas are still taking shape.
Through this programme, PHF hopes to nurture early-stage ideas with long-term potential, encouraging participants to question the status quo and to challenge entrenched systems of power and exclusion. The Foundation defines success not as the completion of a polished project, but as the courage to experiment, fail, adapt, and grow.
This open and exploratory approach has enabled hundreds of individuals and grassroots collectives to pioneer new solutions — from improving mental health support for marginalized groups to developing creative strategies for community organizing and advocacy.
The Ideas and Pioneers Fund provides both financial and developmental support to help participants take the first crucial steps toward realizing their ideas.
Grantees can receive up to £20,000 in funding to explore their idea over a period of up to 18 months. The funding is intentionally flexible, allowing recipients to use it in ways that best serve their vision and context. This could include covering research costs, paying for expert advice, compensating collaborators, or sustaining the applicant’s own time and effort during the experimentation phase.
In addition to financial support, recipients gain access to a tailored wraparound support package that includes optional mentoring, training opportunities, and peer learning. The Foundation fosters a collaborative learning environment where grant holders can connect with other innovators facing similar challenges, exchange ideas, and build solidarity.
Every Ideas and Pioneers grantee becomes part of a growing network of creative thinkers and doers who share the ambition to reimagine society. Through workshops, meetings, and shared resources, participants learn not only from their own experiments but from the collective wisdom of others navigating similar paths.
The Ideas and Pioneers Fund welcomes a diverse range of applicants, including:
The programme primarily targets individuals aged 18 to 30, reflecting PHF’s commitment to amplifying the voices of younger changemakers. However, applications from individuals over 30 are also considered where appropriate. Applicants under 18 are not eligible.
A core principle of the Fund is to reach people who may face barriers to accessing traditional grant funding. PHF is particularly interested in applicants who have not previously received significant financial support but have clear motivation and lived experience related to the issue they wish to address.
The Ideas and Pioneers Fund seeks ideas that embody creativity, justice, and long-term vision. To be eligible, the proposal must serve a charitable purpose and demonstrate potential to create positive social change.
The Foundation is interested in ideas that are:
Applicants should show a strong commitment to challenging systemic oppression and inequality. This includes projects that tackle social, economic, racial, gender-based, or environmental injustices at their root. PHF values approaches that seek to redistribute power, amplify marginalized voices, and build collective resilience.
The Fund is designed to support ideas that are still forming. Applicants are not expected to have a fully structured plan — rather, they should have a clear vision of what they hope to explore, test, and learn. This could mean experimenting with a completely new concept or reimagining existing practices in transformative ways.
While the grant supports short-term exploration, PHF is drawn to ideas with long-term potential — those that could evolve into movements, models, or policies with lasting impact. Applicants should demonstrate how their idea might grow beyond the initial funding period.
In reviewing applications, the Foundation considers not just what the applicant wants to achieve, but how they intend to work. PHF looks for thoughtfulness, inclusivity, and responsibility in the approach to experimentation.
Some guiding principles include:
This reflective, ethical framework ensures that the process of experimentation remains as impactful and inclusive as the outcomes it seeks to achieve.
The Foundation welcomes applications for activities that advance charitable purposes and help applicants learn, test, or refine their ideas for social change. Examples include:
This flexibility ensures that grantees can direct their funding in ways that most effectively serve their goals and learning process.
While the Ideas and Pioneers Fund is broad in scope, there are certain limitations. The Foundation will not fund:
These exclusions ensure that the fund remains focused on early-stage exploration and authentic experimentation, rather than implementation or expansion.
A defining feature of the Ideas and Pioneers Fund is its learning-centered philosophy. PHF understands that genuine innovation involves uncertainty — not every idea will unfold as planned, and that’s part of the process.
The Foundation encourages grantees to document their learning journey, reflect on both successes and setbacks, and share insights with others in the network. This open learning approach not only strengthens individual projects but also contributes to a growing body of collective knowledge about what works (and what doesn’t) in the pursuit of social change.
As the Foundation often states, “For us, success is about exploration, discovery, and learning — not perfection.”
Over the years, the Ideas and Pioneers Fund has supported a wide range of innovators working to address pressing social challenges. A few examples illustrate the diversity and depth of this impact:
Resist + Renew is a collective of trainers and facilitators supporting grassroots movements to achieve radical social change. Their work focuses on helping organizations develop stronger internal structures, democratic decision-making processes, and strategic campaign plans. By strengthening the foundation of activist groups, Resist + Renew contributes to building a more resilient and equitable civil society.
Founded by Lucy, a survivor of child sexual abuse, this project seeks to create the UK’s first fund by and for survivors. With an estimated 11 million survivors across the UK, many of whom remain unsupported, this initiative provides a groundbreaking model for survivor-led advocacy, funding, and systemic change.
These case studies reflect the Fund’s focus on authentic, experience-driven innovation, where those most affected by injustice lead the work to dismantle it.
In an era marked by growing inequality, political polarization, and social fragmentation, the Ideas and Pioneers Fund represents a vital space for creative risk-taking and imagination. Many funding bodies prefer to support proven models — but PHF’s willingness to invest in untested ideas sends a powerful message: transformation begins with imagination.
By funding individuals and collectives who are daring to ask “what if?”, the Foundation helps to seed long-term, systemic change. These small-scale experiments often become catalysts for broader movements, inspiring others to reimagine what is possible.
The Fund’s emphasis on inclusion also ensures that voices historically excluded from traditional funding spaces — young people, grassroots organizers, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ innovators, and others — are heard, valued, and supported.
Applications for the Ideas and Pioneers Fund are currently open, with a deadline of 2 December at 1:00 p.m. (UK time). The grant duration can last up to 18 months, providing sufficient time for exploration and learning.
Applicants should visit the Paul Hamlyn Foundation website for detailed application guidance. The process typically includes:
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation encourages all interested applicants to stay updated through its newsletter and online resources. Regular updates about funding rounds, learning events, and grantee stories are shared via:
Email: information@phf.org.uk
Phone: +44 (0)20 7812 3300
Address: Paul Hamlyn Foundation, 5–11 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HY
The Foundation is also proud to be a Living Wage Funder, reflecting its commitment to fairness and dignity in all supported work.
The Ideas and Pioneers Fund is more than a grant — it is an invitation to dream differently. It empowers individuals to step forward with untested but powerful ideas for social transformation. By focusing on people, potential, and learning, PHF provides the scaffolding for innovation that grows from lived experience and community insight.
For every applicant, whether they succeed or not, the process itself sparks reflection, dialogue, and courage — essential ingredients for change.
In a world that often rewards certainty over curiosity, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation continues to champion those who choose to explore the unknown. The Ideas and Pioneers Fund stands as a beacon of possibility, reminding us that the most transformative social change begins with one simple step: daring to imagine a better way.
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