Has your charity been selected
If you work for a charity, and you’ve been contacted by a school, students or by us at First Give, this is your chance to make meaningful connections with young people in your area. Through our programmes, students learn about the impact that charities like you have, and how they can play a role in your work. Visiting school and supporting students taking part in a First Give programme provides a unique opportunity to connect with passionate, inspired and motivated supporters.
Learn
Students learn about the social issues that matter most to them and discover how your work provides solutions for people in need.Act
Students are empowered to give their own time, and direct First Give funding to the charities they care about the most.Legacy
Whichever programme they complete, students will be inspired to continue practicing generosity long after their programme ends.
£1660500
Total funds granted to charities (2014-2025)
1636
Total number of winning charities (2014-2025)
The First Give programme
On the First Give programme, students research and choose charities in their local community. After each class has chosen their class charity, they or their teacher will reach out to organise a call or meeting with a charity representative. When students have the chance to meet staff from the charity, the likelihood of them carrying out meaningful social action and potentially winning a £1,000 grant increases. If your charity is selected by students on First Give, we’d also love to see you at their First Give Final!
Download our Guidance for Charities. for more details of how to support and engage students.
First Give One Day
The team at First Give work with partner schools to identify causes and charities that their young people are most likely to engage with. We will then invite three or four charities to participate in the day. If selected, you’ll take part in a Q&A session led by the First Give team, in front of a full year group. Students will then reflect on what they’ve learned and have the opportunity to donate First Give funds towards the charities of their choice. Students are also given the opportunity to explore ideas of how they might support your work through ongoing social action.
How will we receive funds if our charity wins a grant?
At every First Give Final, a panel of Judges’ will decide which class will win the £1,000 grant for their chosen charity. At every First Give One Day, students will donate tokens representing real money to charities through the Giving in Action session. In both cases, we will be in contact to ask you to complete a short form, providing your BACs details to transfer the funds. Any funds raised by students themselves will be processed directly by the school. If you are expecting to hear from us and haven’t yet, feel free to get in contact via our form or the phone number on the website.
The most important thing I've learnt is that teamwork is key and also my confidence has been boosted. This has also raised my awareness of the charities around my community.
As well as the fun learning experience that we all had together, our charity is overwhelmed to have benefited from the £1,000. This will go towards helping us fund our counselling service.
We were delighted to win the £1,000 First Give grant…Apart from the money, it’s great to see students learning about local issues and raising awareness of local charities
The young people are really willing to give back to local causes and the local community. And I don’t think this is something they will just finish and forget. I think they’ll take this forward and volunteer further and fundraise further.
They’ve been amazing. I don’t think we’ve ever had a group of people so enthusiastic about raising funds for us.
First Give is an amazing way to skill up our students whilst making contributions to charities within our communities. It is a winning formula for all involved.
Charity case study
"A fantastic way to build our youth supporter network"
One of the classes at the Jo Richardson Community School supported Young Carers of Barking and Dagenham. We spoke to Ronda Browne, a representative from the charity and found out that the students had carried out a range of activities to support them, including fundraisers and also engaging Year 7 in a food drive for the charity’s food bank. Even though they didn’t win the £1,000 grant, Ronda was thrilled by the impact the students had.
The students we connected with through First Give raised enough money to run 3 months' worth of activity, and on top of that collected food and other essential items that supported 65 of the families who use our foodbank.
Who has been involved
and many more!
First Give Programme
Our flagship programme has been delivered in schools across England and Wales since 2014. The programme invites young people to reflect on the social issues that affect their local community and inspires them to take action.
How it worksFirst Give One Day
First Give One Day has been developed in collaboration with teachers and students to ensure as many young people as possible benefit from First Give programmes. Find out how it works.
How it works