Tenacious Award Winners become part of a unique campaigning community, with ongoing support throughout the year. We’re keen to hear from campaigners who are excited to be part of this community, and who will actively participate in the community developing their own campaigning and championing fellow campaigners too.  

Tenacious awardees receive:

• £20,000 of flexible funding for you to dedicate to your campaign. We recommend funds are split over four payments throughout the year. 

• Join an exclusive campaigns’ community: Campaigning is hard work and often lonely. As part of Tenacious you’ll become part of a wider community of campaigners. You’ll meet them all at a community kick-off call at the start of the programme, then join an exclusive slack channel for ongoing peer support, come together for masterclasses throughout the year, be invited to our showcase event plus an end of the year meet up.

• A place at the Tenacious annual event: You’ll have a place to showcase your campaign at the Tenacious campaigners annual event, sharing your campaign to a room of campaigners, funders, journalists and lawyers. This unique event gives you a chance to bring your campaign to a wider audience and connect with experts who can help you on your journey. 

• Access to expert campaign coaches: You’ll get three expert campaign coaching sessions from Breakthrough Impact.

• Campaigning Masterclasses: You’ll get access to 6 expert masterclasses covering campaign skills from growing a supporter base to engaging Parliamentarians to fundraising, all delivered by some of the UK’s leading campaigns experts. 

• Alumni Network: When the year is over, you’ll continue to be part of the Tenacious community, with access to the slack channel, invites to Tenacious events and access to masterclasses when spaces are available. 

Tenacious Awards are granted to:

• Either an individual campaigner or an individual leading a small team, group or organisation with a primary focus on campaigning

• Someone with a proven track record of campaigning

• Dedicating at least 10+ hours a week to the campaign

• UK resident working on a campaign focused on the UK

• Someone who seeks to correct injustice, for the benefit of broader society, within a foreseeable time

• Someone who is able to clearly articulate the change they wish to see and has a plan for how to get there

• Someone who wants to and is ready to make significant progress towards the change they seek in the year ahead

• Fulfils a charitable purpose as described by the relevant legislation

• This funding is likely to make a difference to their campaign.

• Some interesting in joining, supporting and learning from a wider community of Tenacious campaigners. 

• Any cause area - we’re committed to supporting campaigners across any cause area where there is a manifest injustice, and the campaigner has a clear aim and concrete goal. 

Tenacious campaigners use a mixture of methods and approaches to achieve their campaigning goals.

These could range from legal action, policy influencing, advocacy, direct action, creative social media and digital campaigning and the mobilisation of the public around a specific injustice. We’re not prescriptive and interested in seeing any variety of approaches reflected in applicants’ campaign strategies.

Online nominations are invited from people with experience of campaigning and supporting campaigners. trusted associates with campaigning experience. Campaigners wishing to be considered will need to be nominated. We advise asking someone familiar with your campaigning work to nominate you.

• Closing date for nominations: 15 May 2025

• Closing date for selected nominees to complete online application form: 30th May 2024

• Selected finalists to attend an online interview: late-June

• Selection of Tenacious 2025 campaigners: End of July

• Due diligence and any contractual matters: August

• Launch event: September 2025 (date tbc)

Our cohort of 2025 Tenacious awardees is selected by trustees of Changing Ideas with advice from an expert panel considering the following criteria:

• Track record of the campaigner

• Issue they are seeking to address

• Clarity about the specific goal they are seeking to achieve & tactics they plan to use to achieve their goal 

• Likelihood of achieving impact

• Commitment and dedication to the cause over the next year

• Proposed use of Tenacious funding and support

The awardees will commit to:

• Continuing to work on the identified campaign issue for 12 months from the date of the award.

• Play a role in the Tenacious community, attending relevant masterclasses, joining the Slack channel, asking for help when you need it and offering that support in return to others 

• Attend at least one kick-off coaching call with Breakthrough Impact 

• Attend and present at the Tenacious annual event

• Track the impact of your campaigning work (Tenacious will offer guidance)

• Complete a mid-point check-in survey and an end of year questionnaire, and share the highlights of your campaigning work during the year

• Co-operate with The Tenacious Awards to publicise their awards including individual profiles and their campaigns (unless specifically agreed otherwise).