Unlocking the Future
Investing in the Next Generation
Investing in the Next Generation
“Raise your hand if you’ve ever had an idea to create change, but then faced overwhelming challenges when trying to get funding for your project.”
In a room full of young changemakers at a New York City YMCA, the majority of hands go up. It’s not a surprising answer, given the persistent and systemic funding barriers stacked against child and youth-led initiatives, particularly those from marginalized communities.
In 2020, less than 6% of global development aid from the top ten gender equality donors supported programs focused on young people, despite nearly half the world’s population being under 30. This means that many child and youth-led organizations operate on tight budgets - 49% have annual budgets of just US$5,000! With high compliance standards and strict eligibility criteria, accessing traditional funding is often out of the reach for these young, grassroots organizations and movements. For many, pursuing their goals can also pose risks to their personal safety, particularly for those from marginalized communities or operating in repressive environments.
But here’s the good news: children and youth are some of our most powerful agents for transformative change! Throughout history, from technology-fueled protests against inequitable power systems to global climate strikes, young people have consistently shown their unparalleled ability to innovate and inspire. Research shows they are uniquely positioned to reach marginalized and underrepresented groups in their communities, while their front-line participation in campaigns fosters more effective, peaceful movements. Their diverse and intersectional work courageously tackles some of the greatest challenges confronting current and future generations. Their success makes them our greatest untapped resource for advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but to keep the momentum going, they need trust, partnerships, and financing support.
“Prioritizing funding for young people, particularly those who are marginalized, ensures that we are leaving no one and no ideas behind as we work to achieve the 2030 Agenda.”
Imagining a World of Opportunity
So what would it really take to create a world where every child and young person, has the resources, support, and platform to bring their ideas to life? How could a coalition like Unlock the Future, with 25 of the world’s largest youth and child-focused organizations, break down financing barriers and shift power structures to turbocharge their impact? These questions led to the creation of the Funders Collective, a new initiative designed to transform how we support children and young people in addressing the world’s biggest challenges.
This idea didn’t sprout overnight. It took nearly 18 months of research, discussion, and collaboration for the Unlock coalition to unite around this shared vision. In 2023, they began working together to the state of youth financing, analyzing existing funding for youth initiatives and identifying the challenges faced by children and young people.
Their findings confirmed that critical gaps exist in the current funding landscape, especially around the need for core, multi-year funding and learning opportunities for children and young people to sustain their work. This insight prompted a simple yet bold goal in our coalition’s most recent strategy: resource the future by investing in young leaders and unlocking access to increased and improved financing for achieving the SDGs.
“True solidarity means having the courage to resist external influences. It also means allowing youth to lead, not in silos, but in direct collaboration with senior partners.”
Turning Ideas into Action
Equipped with our goal, the coalition spent most of 2024 co-designing what has become the Funders Collective. Since our efforts began, it has mapped 115 funding mechanisms, hosted 15 workshops, held five CEO-level convenings, and conducted over 50 interviews to better understand the field and our place within it. The design process was collaborative and intergenerational by nature, building on the wisdom of all 25 coalition members and our 13 global Youth Advisory Board members.
Last month we reached an exciting milestone, publicly sharing our vision for the Funders Collective for the first time. At the United Nations Foundation’s UNGA 79 reception, among intergenerational experts, changemakers, and policymakers, we committed to working together to break down systemic barriers and reshape the financing landscape through resourcing, research, data, and influence.
So, how do we plan to do it?
With a focus on flexible, multi-year funding and comprehensive support, the Funders Collective is tailored to the real needs of young people and youth-led organizations, especially those in the Global South. Its design builds on the success of existing initiatives from Unlock the Future coalition partners, optimizing our resources and fostering a collaborative environment where knowledge and best practices are widely shared.
The Funders Collective harnesses the youth-led solutions funding model of the Global Youth Mobilization by the Big Six Youth Organizations as our initial operating model, which has proven itself an effective and collaborative mechanism for getting resources into the hands of youth. Similarly, the initiative integrates Plan International’s Equality Accelerator, a powerful, girl-centric platform for youth-led participatory grantmaking and a resource hub for young activists. By leveraging the combined impact of these models, and expanding their capacities with the strengths of other Unlock members, we amplify impact without duplicating efforts.
A Vision for the Future
Looking ahead, the Funders Collective’s core mission is clear: ensure that young people have the resources, influence, and opportunities to drive the change they envision. Over the next two years, we will experiment to deliberately and incrementally build the Funders Collective, leading up to our goal of being fully operational for the final SDG Summit in 2027.
The Funders Collective is here to ensure that all young people, whether gathered for a discussion in New York or out sparking change in their community, have the support they need to push boundaries, break barriers, and build a better world for all generations.
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