2025: Building stronger communities with and for young people
At Co-op Foundation, it’s our mission to deliver funding and campaigns with and for young people. In 2025, we did just that:
Funding cooperatively
We built on our cooperative approach to funding, providing multi-year unrestricted funding so organisations have room to grow. In 2025, we supported our partners with £1.9m of unrestricted funding.
“It’s been very much like we’ve been trusted to go with the needs of the young people that we’re supporting and the community that we’re embedded in and know best.” Funded partner
Shifting power to young people
We continued to centre youth voice in our work and launched the second round of our Future Communities Fund with young people leading its design and decision-making.
“Our work isn’t tokenistic and I feel like not only a collaborator but a shaper and changemaker.”
Phoebe Teasdale, member of the Future Communities Collective
Funding youth leadership
We funded young people with the solutions to tackle the challenges impacting them and their communities. In 2025, we supported 100 individual young people and youth-led organisations with £1.3m of funding.
“My project focuses on co-creation, working directly with students to hear their voices and work with them throughout the whole project to make sure that what we’re fighting for reflects their reality.”
Jess Freitas, 25, Young Gamechanger and founder of The Shift
Campaigning for change
We launched our new campaign focus: ending the unnecessary imprisonment of children. Through our campaigning, we are helping to break down the barriers that prevent us from building fairer and safer communities.
Together we’re stronger
We joined forces with other funders to make our funding go further – adding even more value to Co-op members and their communities. In 2025, we contributed £487,223 to a total funding value of almost £3 million.
To learn more, read our 2025 Impact Report.
Sign up to our blog and follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram to join us as we build communities of the future together.