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Impact Story 2020–2024

Big Change is a UK charity that finds and backs early-stage leaders and projects with bold ideas to transform education and learning so every young person can thrive in life, not just exams. Their 2020–24 impact story covers £5m in grants levering £60m+ in follow-on funding, 63 projects backed, 8 million+ young people reached, and major policy influence including shaping Labour's education agenda — as well as a global presence across 35 countries.

Report snapshot
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About

Early-stage grant funding for education changemakers; Big Education Challenge prize fund; Big Education Conversations; youth advisory groups; policy research and advocacy; global learning alliances; intergenerational collaboration programmes Custom geography from upload: UK / Global

Key Metrics

Key Metric 1 63 projects backed with £5 million in funding, unlocking £60 million+ in follow-on investment — £12 for every £1 given; 8 million+ children and young people engaged through funded projects
Key Metric 2 17 million+ people reached globally through expert articles co-created with insight network across 26 countries; 25,000+ people took part in 2,000+ Big Education Conversations across England since 2021
Key Metric 3 £1 million Big Education Challenge prize fund launched in 2022, backing 15 finalists and 6 award winners; 40 cross-sector experts publishing via global insight network; 35 countries holding Big Education Conversations

Key Outcomes

  • Early-stage backing of Frontline (2013) — now England's largest social work charity, training 2,400 social workers reaching 150,000+ families; Voice 21 (2014) — now working with 203,000 students in 852 schools; oracy embedded in cross-party education priorities
  • 50 Things To Do Before You're 5 — now in 22 local authorities, reaching 1 in 8 under-5s, with £1m+ secured from Department for Education; The Difference — now working with hundreds of schools and thousands of students
  • 77% of young people, parents, teachers and employers agree it is time to rethink education; policy report Out of Kilter shaped Labour's Opportunity Mission; guide to intergenerational convening launched at UN General Assembly

Geography

Other

Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
440,000+ young people aged 4-18 active members across 7,000 Groups
Key Metric 2
140,000 volunteers supporting the movement across the UK
Key Metric 3
373 Sections opened or re-energised in England between April 2024 and March 2025
0.3% overall growth in young people (ages 4-18), driven by 31% increase in Squirrel Scouts (5,200 young people)
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
55,000 foster carers and 370 fostering service providers as members across the UK
Key Metric 2
45 new Fostering Friendly Employers recruited, bringing the scheme to over 680,000 employees across the UK
Key Metric 3
95 Fostering Wellbeing Pioneers in Wales offering peer support and mentoring to fellow foster carers
191 children and young people engaged in outdoor adventure weeks through the Fostering Attainment and Achievement programme in Northern Ireland
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
91,000 young people supported across 24 countries in 2024/25, including 67,368 in the UK
Key Metric 2
Over 70% of the 25,500 young people who completed Employment and Enterprise programmes achieved a positive outcome
Key Metric 3
Education programmes engaged 63,000 young people (69% of the total), the largest share of delivery
In the UK, 71% of Employment and Enterprise completers achieved a positive outcome, including 39% into employment or self-employment
Impact Snapshot
Key Metric 1
851 students supported through the In2STEM programme in 2024, from 2,036 applications
Key Metric 2
27,447 hours of in-person STEM placement experience provided to participants
Key Metric 3
94% of participants know what it means to work in STEM after the programme, up from 69% beforehand
97% of alumni who applied to university were successfully offered a place, based on UCAS data from 1,760 alumni