Proposals to Mission 44  are mostly by invitation only. We will approach potential delivery partners that we identify through research, networks and through seeking input from experts and collaborators from across sectors, including other funders and young advisors. 

Not-for-profit organisations who have not been invited to apply by a programme officer can submit unsolicited requests for funding through the enquiries form on our website. If an organisation believes that strong alignment exists with Mission 44’s funding priorities, we encourage it to submit an enquiry. We will then invite applications for a grant only if we also find strong alignment with our funding priorities and if there is available budget.

We may run an open call for specific funding programmes, as we have done recently for our Diversity in Education Fund. In these circumstances we will publicise the funding opportunity through our social media channels, our networks and on our website, as appropriate, and provide detailed guidance on how to apply.

The Board of Trustees is ultimately responsible for all funding decisions but delegates these decisions to other representatives of Mission 44 to act on its behalf. All decision making is supported by information provided by the Mission 44 Team. In the majority of cases, the Board will delegate funding decisions as follows:

Up to £75,000 - Decisions go to the CEO and are considered in consultation with a representative member of our Youth Advisory Board (usually the Co-Chair of the Impact Committee).

£75,001 - £200,000 - Decisions go to Mission 44’s Impact Committee, which consists of representative members of our Youth Advisory Board, our CEO and members of our Board of Trustees.

Any decisions above £200,000 or more, full decision making will remain with Mission 44’s Board of Trustees.

The timelines for our funding decisions may vary but in the majority of cases we will aim to provide you with a decision within three months of receiving a written proposal. Where this is likely to take longer, Mission 44’s team will communicate the timelines with you as soon as possible and as part of the proposal development phase.  

For open call funds we will provide details of expected decision timelines within the guidance we publish. We may operate a two stage application process that will extend the final funding decision beyond the three months mentioned above.  

Unsolicited enquiries are reviewed on a monthly basis, but we will only respond to organisations where there is strong alignment and budget available.

As the majority of our funding is through invitation only, we do not currently publish success rates. However as we expand our approach to include open funding programmes, we plan to publish our success rates. We expect these to vary on a programme by programme basis. For our latest Diversity in Education programme we received 14 expressions of interest, 4 of these progressed to the final proposal stage and we expect to fund 2.