Financial Literacy Innovation Fund
Open for applications. Deadline 8 March 2024.
The Centre for Financial Capability is seeking innovations with the potential to help more children and young people in the UK learn about money.
Any type of organisation can apply for funding, so long as they can demonstrate commitment to development of children and young people’s financial literacy and meet our funding criteria outlined below. This includes non-profit organisations, social enterprises, and for-profit companies.
Criteria and guidelines
For this round, we’re seeking applications for funding between £20,000 and £80,000.
Your innovation must:
1. Seek to improve the financial capability of children aged 5-11 in the UK (i.e. primary school age)
2. Be a new approach
We are not seeking to fund business as usual. We are seeking to support innovations that have the potential to achieve one or more of the following objectives:
- Create entirely new solutions
- Enhance your existing programme(s)
- Address clearly identified gaps in provision for vulnerable children
- Expand existing programme to different geographical location or group
- Harness technology to engage more children
3. Have a clear role for TCFC
We are especially interested in supporting innovations that may otherwise struggle to secure funding from traditional sources. We are also seeking applications that may be able to leverage non-financial support and skills from TCFC and its corporate partners.
4. Have clearly defined target outcomes
We want to fund projects that are clear on the outcomes they want to achieve and how they contribute to our wider vision of ensuring every child and young person in the UK benefits from financial education.
5. Generate new knowledge about what works
We’re looking for partners willing to work with us to evaluate the project and share learning with others.
What we won’t fund
1. Grant-making organisations
2. Research or theoretical development activity that is not linked to a specific real-world pilot or programme delivery
3. Innovations that do not primarily seek to benefit children in the United Kingdom
4. Organisations that exist to promote the success of a political candidate or party
5. Organisations that exclusively support members of a single religious faith
6. Organisations that cannot demonstrate sound organisation governance and safeguarding practices
How to apply
In no more than 1000 words, tell us about your innovation, how it meets our criteria and what could be achieved with our support.
As well as alignment with our criteria, please also include the total cost of the project and any other sources of income for its delivery, in the event TCFC’s funding does not cover the whole cost.
Please also include the following information about your organisation (not included in the word count allowance):
- Organisation name
- Organisation type (charity/non-profit, social enterprise, for-profit, other)
- UK company and/or charity registration number
- Your income as stated in your latest annual report and accounts
- Attach your safeguarding policy
Send your application to info@tcfc.org.uk by the close of business on Friday 8 March 2024.
Our process and timeline:
26 January – 8 March
Application period
Submit your application by the 8th March 2024.
The TCFC team may request a follow-up call to find out more about your application and support you with any recommended refinements before being considered for the next stage.
11 March – 19 April
Assessment panel and due diligence
Following completion of satisfactory due diligence and alignment with our criteria, TCFC will convene an assessment panel to consider your application against our innovation criteria.
The assessment stage may include further questions from the TCFC team and a presentation to our assessment panel.
30 April
Decision and notification
All applicants will be notified of the outcome by the 30 April 2024.
The TCFC team will work with successful applicants to agree project plan and put a funding agreement in place.