Changing Ideas Ltd

Changing Ideas Ltd, a UK charitable company founded in March 2006 by trustees including Chair David Lionel Graham, drives systemic social change by funding innovative ideas, advocacy, and actions tackling injustice and human rights abuses. With a deliberately broad remit, it empowers challengers of the status quo—individuals, grassroots groups, and organisations—prioritising vulnerable populations through flexible, longer-term investments that blend grants, mentoring, research, and networks. Core values emphasise innovation, public interest advocacy, and enduring impact across education, health, poverty relief, disability, arts, environment, equality, and human rights, often with global relevance like corporate accountability in Myanmar.

It supports advocacy, campaigning, legal action, research, and capacity building via curated programmes: Tenacious Awards for campaigners, Sit-Up Awards for socially-engaged theatre, Research for Change for frontline charities, Law for Change for impactful litigation aiding under-represented groups, Link for Change network, and partnerships like the Burma Campaign UK's Dirty List. Funding targets projects catalysing policy shifts, such as police accountability, food waste policy, and asylum reform, serving children, elderly, disabled people, general public, and other charities.

Eligible applicants are UK-registered charities or CICs based in the UK (primarily England, Scotland, Wales), favouring small/medium grassroots entities with no strict income limits; unsolicited general applications are not accepted—only targeted online forms for specific calls, like the 2025 Campaign Ideas fund with Inspiring Scotland (deadline 21 November 2025, 5pm). Typical grants range £3,000–£10,000, including core costs, seed funding, or unrestricted support, with non-financial extras like mentoring; no capital funding or rolling deadlines. Distinctively proactive and invitation-led, it shuns routine grant-making for pioneering, contentious work fostering multi-year societal shifts.