After receiving feedback from multiple organisations, in 2026, the Foundation trialed an Overnight Residentials Programme in the UK. This pilot initiative will support eight partners to deliver overnight residential experiences, which aim to create positive and lasting memories for participants.
Alongside its core grantmaking, the Foundation seeks to respond to emerging challenges facing grassroots organisations that may limit their social impact. Through ongoing conversations with partners, the Foundation identified that many organisations struggled to deliver residential trips for their beneficiaries, i.e. the opportunity to stay away from home. They often did this without dedicated funding, limiting the range and quality of experiences they could offer beneficiaries. Having supported the delivery of holiday camps in Hungary, the Foundation explored potential support within the UK context.
Our UK partners consistently highlighted overnight residentials as an opportunity that many beneficiaries were missing out on. Research shows that time spent at a residential has a profound influence on the development of young people and their attitudes to the world around them. A good residential can offer fun and laughter, and a uniquely happy experience of community living, plus a raft of important benefits - mental, physical, educational and developmental. The Foundation’s partners support children and young people and/or adults experiencing poverty, inequality, and other disadvantages, making these opportunities largely inaccessible to them.
In response to this, the Foundation launched a ‘closed’ grants programme in the UK to fund overnight residential opportunities, piloting this with its current and previous partners. Organisations were invited to apply for funding to run a residential trip of their choice, selecting the destination, beneficiary group, and activities most suitable for their communities.
Each organisation could apply for up to £5,000, with a match-funding requirement of £1,000. To reduce barriers to participation and make the programme as inclusive as possible, organisations were able to apply for trips involving children and young people and/or adults, both during and outside school holiday periods.
Eight organisations were awarded funding, with a range of trips taking place: from a trip to London for 14-16-year olds to learn about democracy and creating social change, to three nights in the Lake District with hiking, team-building, and problem-solving activities. In total, the programme is supporting 131 young people and 45 adults with new experiences and opportunities. The Foundation will review the success of the Overnight Residentials Programme for 2026, and use this to inform the future development of the initiative.
Funding for overnight residentials was awarded to:
1. Smile for Life
2. High Trees Community Development Trust
3. Cornerstone Benwell
4. Tanga Family Network
5. Foundation Futures
6. Rubies
7. Denton Youth & Community Project
8. Projects4Change
