The Millennium Awards Trust

Charity Number: 1095749

Annual Expenditure: £4.6M

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Quick Stats

  • Annual Giving: £4.6m+ (since 2016, supporting 293 social entrepreneurs)
  • Success Rate: Approximately 23% (estimated from 650 applications per round, 150 awards annually)
  • Decision Time: 20-24 weeks (approximately 5-6 months)
  • Grant Range: £2,500 - £18,000
  • Geographic Focus: United Kingdom

Contact Details

Website: www.unltd.org.uk

Email: info@unltd.org.uk

Phone: 020 7566 1100

Address: 123-127 Whitecross Street, London EC1Y 8JG

Application Support: awards@unltd.org.uk (1:1 assistance available for applicants with additional support needs)

Overview

The Millennium Awards Trust was established by the Millennium Commission with a permanent endowment of £100 million of National Lottery funds. UnLtd serves as the sole trustee of this trust, which has grown to a £150 million endowment. Founded in 2000, UnLtd was among the first organizations to back individuals with their own ideas to create social good. The trust's charitable objectives are to relieve poverty, advance education and training, and promote other charitable purposes beneficial to the community. UnLtd finds, funds and supports social entrepreneurs - people with solutions to change society for the better. In 2023/24, UnLtd supported 150 social entrepreneurs with Starting Up and Scaling Up grants and services, with award winners' ventures reaching an estimated 2 million people. The organization is committed to diversity, with 50% of awards going to Black, Asian and minority ethnic social entrepreneurs and/or disabled social entrepreneurs.

Funding Priorities

Grant Programs

Starting Up Grant: £2,500 - £8,000

For social entrepreneurs starting their ventures who are:

  • At idea stage or have not yet incorporated
  • Less than 4 years old
  • Selling goods/services for less than 1 year
  • Application method: Online portal, rolling basis with quarterly deadlines (limited to 650 applications per round)

Scaling Up Grant: £8,000 - £18,000

For social entrepreneurs growing their ventures who are:

  • Less than 4 years old
  • Selling goods/services for 1-4 years
  • Have minimum trading income of £18,000 in past 12 months
  • Application method: Online portal, rolling basis with quarterly deadlines (limited to 650 applications per round)

Priority Areas

  • Social entrepreneurs aged 16+ tackling any social issues
  • Financially sustainable social ventures with long-term impact potential
  • Social ventures addressing community or planetary challenges
  • Ventures demonstrating potential for scale and lasting social change
  • Any sector, provided the focus is on creating social impact

What They Don't Fund

Activities involving:

  • Political or religious campaigning
  • Activities outside the law, against public policy, or encouraging ethnic, religious, or commercial disharmony
  • Social ventures focused predominantly on raising awareness of social issues

Applicant restrictions:

  • One-off or short-term projects with limited potential for long-term impact
  • Funding to continue existing activities running for over four years
  • Requests predominantly for academic qualifications or overseas travel
  • Individuals who plan to employ others to undertake most of the work on their behalf

Eligibility restrictions:

  • Ventures predominantly focused on impact outside the UK
  • Ventures legally established for over four years (Companies House or Charity Commission registration)
  • Ventures with turnover over £250,000 in their last financial year
  • Applicants without the right to live and work in the UK for at least 12 months
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Governance and Leadership

UnLtd has a dedicated Board of Trustees with governance oversight of the organization and the continuing management of the Millennium Awards Trust, with legal oversight from a government-appointed Protector. The Board is richly diverse, with half of the trustees being social entrepreneurs and former UnLtd award winners.

Recent Trustee Appointment:

  • Amma Mensah - Award-winning founder and executive director of Beyond the Classroom (BTC)

Chief Executive:

  • Mark Norbury - Joined as CEO in May 2016 with over 20 years' experience in the charity and social entrepreneurship sectors

Key Leadership Quotes:

Mark Norbury, CEO: "It's a privilege and a challenge to continue the great work UnLtd is doing in finding, funding and supporting early stage social entrepreneurs. Now the challenge is to help social entrepreneurship break into the mainstream, helping social entrepreneurs to become recognised and valued so they can fulfil their potential to do good."

"Everything we do, the social entrepreneur is at the heart of it. We are shifting our support offer, so it's less about specific products and programmes and much more about a continuous offer which accompanies the social venture through the different challenges and phases of growth and impact."

"The future needs civil society to be much braver, more inclusive and more accountable. That's what we believe and what our social entrepreneurs are telling us."

Application Process and Timeline

How to Apply

  • Online Application Only: Applications must be submitted through UnLtd's online portal at awards.unltd.org.uk
  • Create Account: Applicants need to create an account, allowing them to save and return to complete applications
  • Application Materials: Word and PDF versions available for offline preparation from the Awards page
  • Pre-Application Support: 1:1 assistance available for people with additional support needs or facing barriers to applying (BSL interpreters, accessible formats, or conversations with team members)
  • Application Limit: Each funding round is limited to 650 submitted applications - only completed submissions count toward this limit

Decision Timeline

  • Submission: Applications accepted on a rolling basis with quarterly cut-off dates
  • Decision Time: Approximately 20-24 weeks (5-6 months) from submission to decision
  • Notification: Decisions communicated via email
  • Support Period: 12 months from application result if successful

Success Rates

  • In 2023/24: 150 social entrepreneurs supported with awards
  • With 650 applications per round and multiple rounds annually, estimated success rate is approximately 23%
  • Since 2016: 293 social entrepreneurs supported with £4.6m in awards

Reapplication Policy

Unsuccessful applicants may reapply, but UnLtd encourages applicants to:

  • Carefully consider any feedback given on previous applications
  • Contact UnLtd before starting a new application if unsuccessful multiple times
  • Note: Cannot use complaints procedure to appeal funding decisions if decision-making process followed correctly
  • Cannot receive the same Award type for the same social venture more than once

Application Success Factors

What UnLtd Looks For

Applications are assessed on specific principles. Successful applicants must:

  • Have identified a social issue and developed a business model that works to solve it
  • Be committed to delivering local, regional or national social impact at scale
  • Be experienced, ambitious and capable of growing their venture
  • Have a realistic growth plan
  • Be at least one year old and ideally less than five years old (for established ventures)

Direct Advice from UnLtd

“Prepare your application offline before entering it into the online portal.”

"Closely check the criteria and what we're looking for to avoid disappointment."

“Submit your application early in the round to avoid missing out” (due to the 650 application limit per round).

"Make it about the people and communities you're serving."

"Social entrepreneurs don't always ask for help enough" - don't hesitate to reach out for support.

Examples of Successful Projects

Sporting Memories (Transform Ageing award winners Tony Jameson-Allen and Chris Wilkins): Uses the power of famous sporting moments to start conversations with people with dementia, recording well-known sportspeople talking about their favourite moments and sharing them in community groups. Awarded 'Best National Dementia Friendly Initiative' in 2014.

Grow Bristol: Developing and demonstrating innovative and sustainable ways of growing food in the city year-round. Received a 'Do it' award in 2014 for early stage startups, then a 'Grow It' award three years later when scaling up.

Community Clothing (Patrick Grant): During COVID-19, turned their Blackburn factory into a production line for medical scrubs, demonstrating the adaptability and social responsiveness UnLtd values.

Impact Outcomes

  • 96% of award winners reported feeling better able to make a living from their social venture
  • 81% stated that their turnover had increased
  • Nearly all Award Winners reported feeling confident in their ability to contribute to social change after receiving UnLtd's support

Key Takeaways for Grant Writers

  • Apply Early: With only 650 applications accepted per round, submit as soon as possible after the round opens
  • Focus on Sustainability: UnLtd wants to see financially sustainable social ventures, not awareness campaigns or short-term projects
  • Demonstrate Scale Potential: Show how your venture can grow and create lasting impact beyond initial beneficiaries
  • Be Specific About Social Impact: Clearly articulate the social issue you're addressing and how your business model solves it
  • Show Realistic Growth Plans: Be ambitious but grounded - demonstrate you understand the challenges ahead
  • Don't Just Apply for Money: UnLtd offers extensive support beyond funding (coaching, mentoring, workshops, legal consultation, peer networks) - show how you'll engage with this
  • Check Eligibility Carefully: Particularly the 4-year rule for legal establishment and the £250,000 turnover threshold
  • Seek Pre-Application Support: If you have barriers to applying, contact UnLtd for 1:1 assistance - they genuinely want to support diverse applicants
  • Learn from Feedback: If unsuccessful, carefully consider feedback before reapplying and contact them if you've been unsuccessful multiple times

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