On 12 August, International Youth Day is celebrated every year to talk about the challenges young people face, value their contributions to society, and support their role in building a better future.
The theme of International Youth Day 2025 is “Local Youth Actions for the SDGs and Beyond”.
Localizing the SDGs refers to the process of adapting and implementing the global goals within specific local contexts, aligning them with community needs while maintaining consistency with national and international commitments. This approach is vital to ensure that development is inclusive, participatory, and sustainable. When young people are empowered to engage in this process, they become catalysts for innovation and resilience in their communities.
This year’s theme highlights the vital role of young people in bringing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to life at the local level. Rather than being passive recipients of development efforts, young people are driving change as leaders, innovators, and key contributors within their communities.
Today, there are 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 years, accounting for 16 per cent of the global population. By 2030, the target date for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that make up the 2030 Agenda – the number of youth is projected to have grown by 7 per cent, to nearly 1.3 billion.
NGOs are key partners in the UN’s efforts to empower youth. With their grassroots connections and local knowledge, they understand young people’s challenges and design programs like education, training, or mental health support. They also create inclusive spaces for youth expression and advocate for youth rights on national and international levels.
Today, on the occasion of International Youth Day we want to share with you our best tips for writing proposals for youth projects to support all the amazing NGOs working in this sector.
It is always important to include all beneficiaries in all stages of project planning and implementation. It is of particular importance when working with youth though because one major goal should always be to empower youth. Make sure you amplify the voice of your beneficiaries and help them find their way, instead of imposing your ideas on them. Youth projects should always be youth-driven and will be much stronger this way.
You can use various participatory approaches to collect your beneficiaries’ inputs and to include them. Make sure your organization has youth representation on the board, as this will also strengthen your position when applying for grants for youth projects.
When you work with youth, it is very important to take a holistic approach to every area you want to work in. Different areas are interconnected, and particularly for youth projects, it is important to keep these interconnections in mind. It does not make sense to improve education when you don’t work to create employment as well. Income-generating measures only make sense when they are just and equal for all genders. Political empowerment goes hand in hand with economic empowerment.
Try to keep in mind all the consequences and influences of your project and think in detail about the assumptions and risks of your project. You do not want to start a project that might have a negative impact further down the road.
Partnership always makes sense when you want to apply for grants. If you consolidate resources of two or more organizations, they can last much longer. Experiences and expertise can be shared and bigger challenges can be tackled. This is even more so the case with youth projects.
Many youth-driven organizations are young – not only their members but the organization itself. Donors do not like to give big grants to brand new organizations. Also, administration, budgeting and project management are best learned with time. Partnerships with more mature organizations from the same area or field of work can make a lot of sense. The smaller organization can benefit from the knowledge and expertise, and donors might be more inclined to support such a project.
Staying up to date is always important, but when you want to work with youth, it is crucial. The digitalization of the world is moving ahead very quickly, and young people will have to live and work in a completely different world than the one the older generations knew. Being up to date with methodology and technology is very important to be able to design meaningful projects for youth.
When you apply for a grant for a youth project, you should start thinking about your outreach plan early on. Document all your steps with pictures and video, so you can use your social media channels to share your project with other interested people. Next, to use classic channels like newspaper and radio channels, think about modern modes of distribution of information as well. This could be a Facebook post, a tweet or an Instagram video – whichever channel works best for your beneficiaries and partners.
Check out this article as well where we combined out best tips to write a winning proposal: 10 Top Tips to Write a Great Proposal
Eva is based in Germany and has worked for nearly a decade with NGOs on the grassroots level in Nepal in the field of capacity development and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. Before that, she worked in South America and Europe with different organizations. She holds a Ph.D. in geography and her field of research was sustainability and inclusion in development projects.
Happy new year from Wakati youth group Siaya-kenya, thanks the info great in capacity building, as a youth group actively engaged in farming as abusinees coupled with improved innovations we would like work together to help improve our capacity with more knowledge in Agriculture. Thanks
Hello Victor,
congratulations to your great work. Maybe this article will also help you with your future proposals: https://proposalsforngos.com/proposal-writing-tips/6-tips-for-applying-for-grants-in-the-agricultural-sector/
I am satisfied with the brief and simple steps into writing a grant for youth projects.
I will be able to use this knowledge to start small discussion in my locality, then proceed into forming an NGO which is youth incline. hence, my first draft project will be publish before the end of 2019
Hello Samuel,
that is great, best of luck with everything! Maybe this article about how to write a proposal when your NGO is brandnew can be helpful for you: https://proposalsforngos.com/fund-raising-strategy/how-to-successfully-fundraise-if-your-ngo-is-brand-new/
Dear Eva
I am Dr.N.Parasuraman from M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (NGO) India . We are working youth development program last 30 years . We are looking good Partnership youth project. Our main work was agriculture , food, nutrition and development .
Regards,
N.Parasuraman
Hello,
best of luck with your work. Partnerships are a great way to access funding opportunities that otherwise would stay closed. Here is an article about how to make partnerships work: https://proposalsforngos.com/fund-raising-strategy/follow-these-rules-to-make-your-ngo-partnership-a-success/
Dear Dr. N. Parasuraman, am Joseph mwansa from Zambia. Am very interested for your post my main concern is for agriculture especially to find a machine for making cooking oil and I have no support because I want to support my fellow youths program. And very easy to start poultry farming land it’s not a issue. I thank you God bless
Dear Joseph. With thousands of donors in the world today, we are not able to contact donors on your behalf. We suggest you check our free course on finding 50 donors in 10 minutes and build your own donor mapping: https://philantropia.org/courses/50-donors-in-10-minutes/.
I send already
Dear Eva Wieners,
I am from Odisha.I would like to meet with you in person.I would be happy if you will write me about my kind request at your earliest possible time.
With Regards,
Mohit
Hello Mohit,
thank you for your message. Our office is based in Kathmandu, Nepal. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to contact us. We do not offer direct funding or consulting services though, but I am sure our content will help you draft a great proposal in the future. Best of luck
Dear Eva,
Greetings!! am from Ethiopia, as I have seen you have a nice story really I appreciate you again and again,
with best regards!
Hello Nebiyu,
thank you very much for your nice comment. I am really happy that our content is helpful for you!
Dear Eva Wieners, we are are Children and Youth Sports Organization Umbrella we lily want to work with you for and we enjoyed you. we are from Rwanda our full contact For more information don’t hesitate to contact us:
Website : childrenandyoutsports.org
P. O. Box 2842 Kigali – Rwanda
Twitter @cyso_org
Office location in Amahoro National Stadium (Remera); Entrance No 4 upstairs.
Regards.
Hello,
thank you very much for reaching out. We are not a grant giving organization though. If you are looking for further calls for applications, please check https://www2.fundsforngos.org/
need your assistance to assist youth in our country Eswatini
Hello,
thank you very much for reaching out. We are not a grant giving organization though. If you are looking for further calls for applications, please check https://www2.fundsforngos.org/
CEO& Founder @ GREGORYSON INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION, am very satisfied with the ideas with your sharing with all of us as youth because as a consultant/ project person I prefer to learn more and new things daily. It’s magical to get to learn and even understanding the world. I will actually use the same amount of knowledge to improve the Informations which we share with different clients in the country even the whole world in-oder to improve our services in the end.
Do come to Tanzania! Please welcome all!
Thank Mr.Eva
Am from Uganda, I am a youth who has just initiated medical clinic which provide youth friendly health activities .
Your information is very vital at time we need helping and but putting it in black and with can make donar fail to spornser and yet it good work.
Thanks
Raymond
Hello Eva,
Thanks for your thoughtfulness in writing this piece. I find it very insightful and I would appreciate getting some feedback from you on a couple of things. I am N. MacPherson David, a Liberian and I run a foundation that focuses more on youth development. The Foundation is called N. MacPherson David Foundation. We are involve basically with helping the underprivileged youths with basic skills and carer development opportunities. Coming out of crisis and transitioning into peace and reconciliation, we have realized that the fundamental issues that took us to war are yet to fully be discussed and solved. Besides, we also realized that the war left behind a compromised generation that needs to be mentored in a way that they become useful citizens. That way they are better able to respond to the many future challenges and as well develop the skills and competence required to contribute to the broader growth and development of Liberia. Currently, I am the lone financier for these undertakings and I am thinking on how to horn resources to help sustain our work, which I am of the conviction that you can be a great help to our success. Thanks and hope you can be a help to our start-up as we are bent on making needed interventions in order to stimulate the growth of our country.
Thanks,
Nehwon Macpherson David
Hello Nehwon,
thank you for your comment and congratulations to your great work. I am sure you can find many helpful resources on our page about fundraising and how to find new sources of funding. If you sign up for our Newletter, you will even get a sample proposal from a successful project sent to your inbox so you could learn from a great example. Best of luck!
Hi Eva this is Philemon in Uganda I am writting to you to help me on how best I can write a proposal to help the youth .. pliz kindly be elaborative if you don’t mind we can discuss more.thanks waiting for your kind response.
Hello Philemon,
thank you for your comment. If you follow our page you will learn a lot more about proposal writing. I also recommend you subscribe to our newsletter to receive a free sample proposal.
Happy 2019 from Southern Kenya.
This are great tips. We have been running our project from our pockets, and we hope to get support this year.
Tips on writing good youth proposals, or a template would be a great gift for 2019 🙂
Thanks again.
Very impportant tips Eva. I am also from Nepal and working in South America.
Hi Eva I need to start a project in my rural community for the youth who are roaming the streets unemployed . I don’t know where to start kindly help .
Regards
Joey Moloisane ledwaba
South Africa
Hello Joey,
we are not a funding organization, but if you keep following our page you will receive a lot of useful information for fundraising. We also share funding opportunities that might be interesting for you and your projects.
Thank you Eva much appreciated am a third year PhD student with university of limpopo in SA.
Hi,hope you are doing well.
I am very much interested to work in an NGO,but how can I start? please give a chance to work.
Hello Mr.Eva,,am liban ,from Kenya,am youth leader from a marginalised area where as youths we are trying to put awareness and mentorship programmes to uplift the level literacy in our region,Looking forward on more and more emails on how to prepare a good proposals to benefit our group,,I have subscribed to your newslater and looking forward to be more educated,Thank you very much
Thank you for your comment.
The SDGs are ambitious and achievable Global Goals. Empowering youths to understand, commit and remain passionate about them is essential.
I come from Ghana on the African continent. Over 90% of our population are youth. I believe we have to adopt Digital Literacy, TVET Skiils training and Agribusiness as the way forward.
Thanks for sharing the inspiration Eva.
i want to work on my countries agricultural mechanization .have a good knowledge and practical experience on design and manufacturing equipment’s and machines so,how i can organize youth for this idea.(my country is full of an employed university graduates)
Happy to come across this site while browsing. I am starting to write a project proposal on Youth Empowerment Initiative, any related suggestions will help and enlighten my thoughts. kind regards
Yes