Future Stories Fund

ELIGIBILITY

This round of funding is currently only open to applications from non-profit organizations who are delivering projects based in Mexico City (defined as the boroughs Álvaro Obregón, Azcapotzalco, Benito Juárez, Coyoacán, Cuajimalpa de Morelos, Cuauhtémoc, Gustavo A. Madero, Iztacalco, Iztapalapa, La Magdalena Contreras, Miguel Hidalgo, Milpa Alta, Tláhuac, Tlalpan, Venustiano Carranza, and Xochimilco) and/or other states including the State of Mexico, Morelos, Hidalgo, Puebla, Tlaxcala, and Guerrero.

To be eligible, your project must meet all of the criteria below:
 

• Your project supports local youth (aged 12-18) to develop the confidence, creativity and transferable skills they need to thrive in education, employment and wider society  
  • 11-year-olds may also participate, provided they are in escuela secundaria
  • Your project may focus on a narrower age range within this bracket, e.g. 12-15
     
• Your project uses storytelling or language as the core mechanism
   
  • Projects may involve reading, writing, podcasts, poetry, theatre, acting, playwriting, and anything else relating to language and expression. Projects that solely involve music, art and/or dance are not eligible, but if they form part of a variety of approaches with storytelling also included, then they will be considered.
     
• Your project is innovative
   
  • Your project takes an innovative approach to using storytelling to ignite imagination and build skills amongst participants. The innovation can be within the project design, a new way to reach and engage with a target group, a new methodology, a novel collaboration or mixed-methods approach, exploring a unique social challenge, and/or using new tools to tell stories and spark participants’ imagination and creativity.
  • You cannot use the grant to continue or expand an existing project in the same location, with the same target beneficiaries, using the same approach.
     
• Your project serves historically excluded young people
   
  • Your project must engage youth from historically excluded communities (e.g. youth from indigenous/native peoples and other ethnic or racialized groups, gender, neurodiverse youth, low-income backgrounds, LGBTQ+ youth, disabled youth, care experienced youth, etc.)
     
• Your project can start within 6 months and finish within 12 months
   
  • Funding must be used to deliver a time‑bound project beginning within 6 months of receiving the grant and completed within 12‑months of receiving the grant. We aim to distribute funding in early-January 2027, so your project must start by mid-June 2027, and be completed the end of December 2027.
     
• You operate at a local, grassroots-level
   
  • Your annual operating budget must be $6,000,000 MXN or less.
  • If you exceed this threshold and a significant proportion of your income is restricted or pass‑through funding that does not reflect your core operating capacity, you may still apply and will be given an opportunity to provide further details in your application.
     
• Your project budget should represent no more than 40% of your annual operating budget
   
  • Individual grants of up to $350,000 MXN are available, but the project budget you request should represent no more than 40% of your annual operating budget from the previous year.
     
• You have no political or religious affiliation
   
  • We cannot fund projects or groups whose primary purpose is political or religious, or where grant activity could be used to advance political or religious beliefs.
     
• Your organization has a bank account
   
  • Funding must be transferred to a bank account in the organization’s name. Payment can be made in Mexican Pesos or US dollars, depending on your preference.

If you’re unsure whether your project is eligible, please send us a short brief of the type of project either via email fsf@thinkbeyond.consulting or WhatsApp (+44 7943 300 828). You can also book a drop-in session throughout the application period here, to talk through your ideas and ask any questions.

ABOUT AUDIBLE

Audible, an Amazon company, is a leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, offering customers a new way to enhance and enrich their lives every day. Audible.co.uk content includes more than 900,000 audiobooks, podcasts, and Audible Originals. Audible serves millions of members in over 180 countries with content in more than 50 languages; members download nearly 4 billion hours of content annually and listen across a wide range of supported devices.

ABOUT THINK BEYOND

Think Beyond is a UK based social impact and sustainability consultancy, working in and through sport and entertainment. They leverage powerful platforms for positive change. Think Beyond are pioneers of sustainable societal change, empowering those with ambition to find innovative solutions to complex problems. Think Beyond support brands, teams, leagues, and talent to have a real impact on the world and their business. To create this change, and drive sustained commercial growth, it’s essential to have leaders driven by a higher purpose, organizations that make sustainability a core value, community programmes that deliver real impact, and communications that inspire action. That’s why Think Beyond create all four - Purposeful Leaders, Sustainable Organizations, Impactful Programmes and Inspiring Communications.

FUTURE STORIES FUND x UK

While 2026 is the first year that the Future Stories Fund has been run in Mexico, the Fund has been run in the UK for the past two years with a focus on a different region in each year. In 2025/26 three incredible organizations from the West Midlands region were selected to receive funding, helping to give a voice to the youth in their communities. Read on for more details on how they used their funding:

Calathea Arts, Solihull: Calathea Arts empowered neurodiverse young people to explore and respond to local street art through storytelling. Across eight creative workshops, participants engaged with poetry, spoken word, and performance, developing skills in writing, sound design, and public speaking. A collection of interviews with various street artists, and collaboration with sound designers enabled participants to create original audio pieces that were presented at a public exhibition attended by the local Mayor. Through these activities, the young people involved were able to build confidence, embrace creativity, and self-expression through immersive, multi-sensory storytelling experiences.

Inspire Hub Central, Birmingham: Inspire Hub Central created ‘Beyond the Margins’, an innovative storytelling programme for marginalised youth in Sparkbrook, Birmingham. Aimed at young people from Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Somali and other underrepresented communities in the area, the programme blended poetry, playwriting, podcasting and theatre to explore identity and culture. Through monthly workshops, mentoring, live showcases and collaborations with local platforms, the project helped participants build confidence, language skills and career aspirations – offering creative tools and real-world opportunities to amplify youth voices and shape future pathways.

Powerhouse Creative, Herefordshire: Powerhouse Creative ran a 6-month story and audio production programme with young people from the most deprived communities in and around Herefordshire. The programme involved script-writing sessions, and production of short-form audio dramas and podcasts about the participants' personal stories. By building passion around storytelling and gaining valuable transferable skills in reading, writing, performance and digital production, the programme aimed to build young people’s confidence to share their voice, build their imagination, and help them build skills to explore creative careers.

FIND OUT MORE

Please read our FAQs, but if there’s something not covered, feel free to send a WhatsApp on +44 7943 300 828 or email at fsf@thinkbeyond.consulting.

​By submitting an application, you confirm that:

• A majority of the participants engaged in the project are between the ages of 11 and 18 at the time of participating;
• Any participants under the age of 18 confirm they have the consent of their parent or guardian to participate in the project;
• All applicants are full time residents of the Mexico and have the right to work in Mexico;
• You represent and warrant that the project to which the application relates is eligible in accordance with the criteria, is an original work, and you own or otherwise control all of the rights to the content;
• You will not do, or omit to do, anything that is, or is likely to be, detrimental to the activities or reputations of Audible and Think Beyond, and will not portray Audible or Think Beyond in a false, misleading, derogatory, or otherwise offensive matter;
• You will not use any Audible or Think Beyond logo or other proprietary graphic or trademark without express written permission; and
• You accept that Think Beyond reserve the right to verify applicants’ eligibility and to reject any application that does not meet the stated criteria under these Terms.

The Applicant acknowledges and agrees that Think Beyond will be required to process your personal data in order to review the application and administer the grant of funding for successful applicants. All information submitted in connection with your application will be treated in accordance with Think Beyond’s Privacy Notice, located on our Google Drive. Think Beyond will collect personal information primarily to process your application and to contact the Applicant in relation to the funding grant, as necessary. Think Beyond will share information with third parties that have a need to know for the purposes of administering the applications (such as the third-party online form host).

Audible and Think Beyond reserve the right to disqualify any applicant from the Future Stories Fund and their grant of funding will be forfeited, if in our sole discretion any applicant does not comply with any requirement, representation or warranty described in these Terms. Think Beyond’s decision regarding funding allocation is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding unsuccessful applications. Selected projects may be featured in programme promotional materials, with appropriate credit given to creators.

All applicants will be contacted on the outcome of their application using the email or WhatsApp information (dependent on indicated preference) provided on their entry form by 15th December 2026. If successful applicants cannot be reached within 7 business days from the date of receiving notification of their successful application, that applicant will forfeit their grant of funding. This process is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Audible and Think Beyond reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to change these Terms or cancel any aspect of the grant of funding at any time, or to modify, terminate, or suspend any grant of funding.

Audible and Think Beyond are not responsible for any human or other error that may occur in the processing or running of the applications and grant of funding to successful applicants, nor are we responsible for any error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, theft or destruction, or unauthorized access to, or alteration of, applications, or for technical, network, telephone, computer, hardware or software, malfunctions of any kind, or inaccurate transmission of, or failure to receive any application information on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website. We are not responsible for injury or damage to any applicant’s or any other computer resulting from downloading any materials in connection with applications or the grant of funding.

To the extent permitted by law, Audible excludes liability for any loss and or damage (whether such damage or any losses were foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise) including financial, reputational loss or disappointment. Audible, its sub-contractors, subsidiaries, agencies and or any other organisations associated with the applications or funding, do not accept any liability whatsoever for any technical failure, malfunction or any other problems with any server, internet access, electronic or mechanical system issues or otherwise, which may result in any application or related project materials being lost.

By participating in the application process and grant of funding to successful applicants, each applicant agrees to release, discharge, indemnify and hold harmless Audible, its parent, subsidiaries, affiliates, related companies, advisors, advertising/promotion agencies, distributors, vendors, and prize suppliers, as well as their directors, officers, and employees from and against any and all claims, liability, costs, losses, damages or injuries of any kind arising out of or related to the applicant’s participation in the application process and/or related to any aspect related to the application and grant of funding.

These Terms are governed exclusively by the laws of England and Wales and for the avoidance of any doubt, the English courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction.

Audible will not be responsible or liable for: (i) any failure to receive applications due to transmission failures or other conditions beyond our reasonable control; (ii) any late, lost, misrouted, garbled or distorted or damaged transmissions or entries; (iii) any disruptions, injuries, losses or damages caused by events beyond our reasonable control; or (iv) any printing or typographical errors in any materials associated with the Fund.

The Future Stories Fund and all accompanying materials are copyright protected by Audible Limited and its affiliates. All rights reserved.