Social emotional learning grants for charities in the UK and France
Social emotional learning funding supports the advocates redesigning education to put human flourishing at the centre.
NILO Foundation provides grants for education nonprofits and the practitioners building resilience, emotional tools, and life skills into every classroom.
[ BACKGROUND ]
Children are carrying more than a classroom was built to hold
Modern schools have become the front lines for a changing world.
Before the first lesson even begins, teachers must navigate acute post-COVID anxiety, systemic poverty, and the persistent cognitive weight of the “midnight screen”.
When academic performance is expected without first establishing emotional equilibrium, both students and educators are pushed toward systemic exhaustion. These numbers reflect a societal issue that temporary measures cannot resolve.
1 in 5
Children and young people in the UK currently live with a mental health condition.
[Source: NHS Digital, 2023]
1 in 8
Students in France report chronic anxiety that prevents them from attending school.
[Source: Santé publique France, 2023]
Underlying drivers
- Compounded economic instability that strains family resilience.
- Rising digital fatigue and the weight of constant connectivity.
- A structural gap in school-based support and counselling services.
Emotional wellbeing is not the enemy of attainment, it is the foundation of it
We are seeing the emergence of practitioners who refuse to accept between academic development and human flourishing.
Across the sector, schools are reaching for a model where secure relationships and emotional safety are placed uncompromisingly at the absolute center.
These schools need a surrounding field that is financially supported.
[ INVESTMENT CASE ]
Why resourcing this field now
Where social and emotional learning is taken seriously, the gains show up across the board.
ACADEMIC RESULTS
Stronger performance
Academic results and engagement improve when students feel safe, supported, and able to regulate their own learning.
MENTAL HEALTH
Better wellbeing
Better mental health and a healthier school climate emerge when relationships, safety, and emotional safety are prioritized.
Behavioural outcomes
Positive school cultures
SEL reduces behavioural incidents and improves classroom culture, creating a more stable environment for learning.
Economic opportunity
Wider opportunity
Life skills are foundational, not optional. They open paths to education, employment, and long-term economic mobility.
The case for social emotional learning funding has never been stronger. The evidence base is mature, tested across very different classrooms. The pandemic pushed the wellbeing of students and teachers up the agenda. Now, most policymakers accept what practitioners have long known: life skills are foundational, not optional.
What we fund in education and social emotional learning
These are the organisations receiving our social-emotional learning grants:
Strengthening the school workforce
To care for children, we first sustain the adults who teach them. We back the organisations that train and support teachers, stand behind school leaders, and make the case for a healthy workforce supporting the child.
Exposing children to nature
We partner with organisations exposing youth to nature in various ways. Nature is a key component of children’s emotional and social development, and of their ability to relate to a changing climate in a healthy, empowering way.
Evidence-grounded advocacy
We back the push for policy change, making the scientific case inside philanthropy and government, so more funding flows into wellbeing in schools and outside schools, and SEL is understood as foundational, not optional by decision-makers.
[ OUR STRATEGY ]
Change the system from the ground up
Our three-part strategy to help every child build strong social and emotional skills.
Ensure continuity across ages.
At any age. This work runs inside schools and beyond, in classrooms and in the spaces around them.
Supporting the professional community around the child
Working to promote children’s resilience and wellbeing should not happen only in schools. We work with organisations active inside and outside of the education system, ensuring extracurricular settings are also designed as places for children to flourish and connect with each other in a healthy way.
Sharing what works and connecting the dots
Movement building in SEL is necessary, in a field that is rich but still fragmented. We encourage our partners to share learnings widely, coordinate with the rest of the sector, and we sustain the coalitions and movement that promote wellbeing in education.