Youth Action and Wellbeing Grants
Grants from a pool of $100,000, open to groups led by young people (under 30) across the country campaigning to create change.
Youth Action and Wellbeing Grants are closed for 2025.
If you have questions or want more information you can email them to [email protected].
What are the Youth Action and Wellbeing Grants?
At FYA, we back young people to make the change they want to see in the world. These grants aim to support under-resourced youth-led groups and grassroots campaigns with lived experience of injustice, by providing the resources they need to make a positive difference while helping them take care of themselves and their communities.
What Grants are available?
We are offering two types of grants:
- Youth Action Grants (currently closed):You can apply for a grant of $5,000-$15,000 (one-off) to fund actions to create structural change. We’ll fund grants up to $75,000 in total.
- Wellbeing Grants (currently closed): You can apply for a grant of $2,000-$5,000 (one-off) to support the wellbeing of youth-led groups to keep up the fight sustainably. We’ll fund grants up to $25,000 in total.
Note: there may be a limited number of multi-year grants available, and eligibility for this is assessed after shortlisting, in conversation with FYA staff.
We’ll back up the grants with wraparound support from FYA’s Youth Action Team. Youth-led groups who receive grants will be part of a program which includes:
- coaching and training in a number of valuable skills including media, digital and social media, strategy development, team culture and wellbeing, community organising, and intersectionality.
- Support to increase monitoring and evaluation skills to build the evidence base of their work, assisting with securing ongoing sustainable funding for long term change.
Grants timeline
| Expressions of interest open | 22 July – 25 August |
| Online info session | 29 July. 7 – 8 PM AEST. Watch the recording here |
| Shortlist announced | 19 September |
| Shortlisted round 2 applications due | 17 October |
| Recipients notified | 30 October |
| Funds released | December |
Grant recipients will be selected by a Youth Grants Panel of 8 young people, who will not have direct links to any of the applicants.
Frequently asked questions
Our Youth Action Fund backs young people to channel and grow their collective power to beat injustice and transform the future.
We are open to funding a wide array of activities, limited only by your imagination and the following criteria:
- The application must be on behalf of a group, organisation or community, not an individual, and based in Australia.
- Groups or campaigns must be led by young people under the age of 30 with lived experience of the issues they are campaigning on.
- The group or campaign must have a tangible goal or goals, which must be focused on structural change (eg. we will not fund awareness raising, service provision or training/education, unless as part of a campaign for structural change)
- Campaign goals must be aligned with FYA’s values.
- Funds must be spent by the end of October the year after they are granted, and can’t be used for activities that are unlawful, or promote or oppose a political party or candidate as part of an election.
- Each group can apply for only one Youth Action and one Wellbeing grant each (a multi-year grant is considered one grant).
To view the Grant Guidelines click here.
Shortlist: You’ll be notified if you have made it onto the shortlist around 19 September 2025. If you’re on the shortlist, you’ll be invited to complete a more detailed application (including a breakdown of budget and the theory of change) and/or interview. A member of our Youth Action team will get in touch to provide support and we’ll provide you with templates to make adding detail to your application as easy as possible.
If you didn’t make the shortlist, you’ll be contacted by a member of the Youth Action team who can provide feedback.
Final decision: The panel will consider your application. You’ll be notified of the outcome of your application by 29 October 2025. If you are unsuccessful, there will be an opportunity for you to meet with someone from the Youth Action team to get more feedback.
If you are successful, the funds will be released to you in December 2025.
The grants shortlist and subsequent recipients will be decided by the Youth Grants Panel. The panel consists of 8 people aged 16-29 who have been appointed by FYA and are volunteering their time. Panel members are required to declare any conflicts of interest and will be unable to make decisions on grants for any organisation or group they have a direct association with.
To view the Grant Guidelines click here.
If your application is successful:
- Funds will be distributed and must be spent by the end of October 2026
- The Youth Action team will work with you to set up a program of support based on your plans and activities.
- Support can consist of regular catch ups with a coach, and a program of workshops and training sessions that will be open to all grant recipients.
If you don’t make the shortlist or your final application to the panel is unsuccessful, you’ll be contacted by a member of the Youth Action team who can provide feedback on your application.
If you have any questions or want more information about the Youth Action & Wellbeing Grants please contact [email protected].
The following initiatives and projects were successful with their grant applications for 2025
Multi-year grants (3 annual payments):
- Strait Tok $20k/year. Torres Strait Islands–based group of young people producing climate resources in language and strengthening intergenerational communication and campaigning on the climate crisis.
- 44 Flats United $20k/year. Public housing tenants in Naarm to campaigning to stop public-housing demolitions and maintain public-housing levels.
One-off grants:
- BDS Youth $10k for a BDS Youth campaign planning retreat
- For My People $15. Naarm-based African youth–led campaign pushing for a shift away from punitive policing and bail laws toward community-led safety and justice reinvestment.
- Silent Sounds of Survivors $15k. Wodonga-based, youth-led campaign advocating for more regional adolescent inpatient mental-health beds in Victoria.
- Third Culture $10k to develop and pilot of an anti-racism in schools program based in the western suburbs of Naarm.
- With You We Can $15k. National youth-led campaign for independent legal representation for sexual-assault survivors during trials.