Are you working on an innovative education project that serves marginalised learners? If so, Theirworld could help you take your project to the next level. We’re looking for up to 10 non-profits for our Education Innovation Awards 2025. Winners receive support to grow via leadership coaching, masterclass training sessions, one-to-one mentoring and a grant of up to £50,000 each. In 2025, we especially welcome applications from organisations working on:
Organisations supporting LGBTQ+ initiatives are especially encouraged to apply.
Is your organisation a registered non-profit organisation and have you completed a successful pilot with at least 2,000 learners?
The award is designed to help you develop your pilot, invest in evaluation and complete other activities to prepare for scale-up. Our programme will:
The scale-ready grant is designed to help you develop your pilot, invest in evaluation and complete other activities to prepare for scale-up.
Up to 10 winners will benefit from our accelerator-style programme, combining essential elements to help your project grow:
To apply for the Education Innovation Awards 2025, your innovation must meet the criteria outlined in this document. While projects can come from any country, we will prioritise applications that have impact in, or intend to scale to, one or more countries where we have existing projects (see map: https://theirworld.org/projects/).
We prioritise applications from Community Led Organisations. A Community Led Organisation is:
Does it sound like your project would be a good fit? Complete the eligibility check now, to receive the application link. The eligibility check takes around five minutes to complete.
The Education Innovation Awards support pilot-stage grantees to make their innovations scale-ready, by building their skills and capacity through introductory classes, masterclasses, mentoring and scale-ready grants. We are currently recruiting for the fifth cohort of the Awards, following four outstanding cohorts supported between 2021 and 2025.
The process is simple:
Shortlisted applicants may be invited for a short online interview.
The application form should take around one hour to complete, and you will be asked to accept our privacy policy and terms and conditions (including a safeguarding policy). You will also be asked to submit a detailed budget. If you are shortlisted, you will need to provide supporting documentation including your latest annual report and audited accounts.
To apply for the Education Innovation Awards 2025, your innovation should meet the criteria outlined in this document.
Once applications have closed, a Theirworld selection panel will evaluate the eligible applications. They will use the eligibility criteria and programme objectives to select the Awards winners, which will be reviewed and approved by Theirworld Trustees.
The masterclasses and bespoke mentoring will set up your innovation for a successful scaleup through capacity and skills building.
The masterclasses are intensive workshops to prepare your team to create and deliver a strong, thoughtful and focused scale-up strategy, providing an in-depth understanding of organisational development, stress-testing solutions, partnerships and other core building blocks for successful scale-up.
The masterclasses will be complemented by one-to-one mentoring for each team, designed according to the team’s needs.
The CEO or leader of each organisation will also receive leadership coachingto help develop their leadership mindset and skills.
Theirworld aims to award these scale-ready grants to non-profits looking to scale up their promising pilot-stage innovations and reach their full potential.
The grants must go towards getting the winning innovation ready to grow and the costs directly associated with increasing the reach of this project.
The costs will differ between organisations, but during the application process and scale-up strategy you will be asked to define what your organisation would like to spend the scale-ready grant on.
You will submit a budget outline when you apply.
Overwhelmingly, innovation teams and leadership in our first four cohorts have enjoyed and learned from the programme. One year after the programme began, all teams in Cohort 1 were on track to meet their scaling goals. Some in Cohort 2 have even exceeded their projections.
Organisations we work with highly value our collaborative approach, flexibility and our shared purpose.
We believe these Awards help to fill a global gap in support and financing that is holding back big change in education. We want to unleash your potential and help you grow.
We see these Education Innovation Awards winners as a critical investment in your scaling journey and the future impact that the innovation can have.
Through being involved in this programme, Awards winners will benefit from exposure via Theirworld’s public communications and internal networks. Awards winners will also have the opportunity to present their innovations and scale-up plans to an audience of supporters at the end of the programme.
When you graduate from the masterclasses and mentoring, you will have a clear case for fundraising to grow your innovation.
We offer a combination of 1-1 and group mentoring. Our scale-up experts and a monitoring and evaluation specialist will be your main mentors. They will work with you regularly to review how your plans are progressing and identify further support needs. Where you need specialised support in particular areas, we will explore how any of the members of the Theirworld and Global Business Coalition for Education networks might be able to help us support you. We will guide you to get the most out of the mentoring opportunity and ensure high quality.
While projects can come from any country, we will prioritise applications that have impact in, or intend to scale to, one or more countries where we have existing projects (see map: https://theirworld.org/projects/).
We prioritise applications from Community Led Organisations. A Community Led Organisation is:
These programmes will be delivered online. Resources will be made available to participants in advance of the sessions. Recordings of all masterclasses and mentoring sessions will be provided afterwards. Coaching sessions remain confidential.
If you have any questions about the Awards or the application, you can reach out to Theirworld’s Innovation Team at [email protected].
All organisations who meet the eligibility criteria are welcome to apply. Our first priority is to ensure the safety of all individuals involved in the programme. If you are selected for an Innovation Award and do not wish to have your award publicised, we will ensure the name and details of your organisation are not used publicly.
If you know someone who would be a good fit, please share the opportunity with them.
