Simon Marsh

Simon is passionate about creating happy relations between OnSide and the amazing Foundations and Companies engaging young people. Simon caught the OnSide bug when he went passed Future Youth Zone, near where he grew up. His preparation for OnSide as a fundraiser started at the youth charity Centrepoint and a very successful 14-year spell at the London School of Economics.

Since 2020 Simon has been at OnSide helping the growth of new Youth Zones across the country. This included leading our approach to the Youth Investment Fund, whilst driving forward other high value partnerships. Simon and his team buddy Emma Walton also work collaboratively with the open Youth Zone network, offering support and insight around grant makers. They particularly enjoy developing high value network projects offering large scale and immediate impact such as the Burberry Inspire Programme.

Best experience to date? Mucking in with Izzy and the Young People’s Development Group in Grimsby who together led a successful bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund to support Horizon Youth Zone. This included their bold (and successful) request for ‘fact finding’ residentials to a former whaling town in Massachusetts!