Community groups in Wales are being invited to enter an award scheme which last year gave out £1,500 to the region’s good causes.
Three Wales based community groups were amongst those celebrating at the end of last year after local supporters helped them secure £1,500 of funding from Skipton Building Society’s Grassroots Giving Scheme.
The winners were chosen by public vote after being shortlisted from almost 1,000 community organisations across the country. Now in its fifth year, Grassroots Giving was set up to support small community groups which might not normally attract any sort of funding. In 2017, a total of £82,000 has been made available to reward 164 groups.
Applications open on Tuesday 3 May and can be made online at www.skiptongrg.co.uk. The groups which make it to the shortlisting stage in August are then profiled by Skipton, the UK’s fourth largest building society, and then the public will be asked to vote for who they think is the most deserving.
Last year, all of the following groups in Wales received enough public votes to win £500 from Grassroots Giving.
- The Parc y Werin Committee
- Trethomas Bluebirds AFC
- Varsity Vandals
These local community groups are all run for their local communities, managed by volunteers and are largely self-funded. They all have unique challenges when faced with running costs and having the funds and resources to grow.
Roy Prenton, of the Grassroots Giving team, said: “These self-funded groups work hard to improve their local community and we’re proud that this funding from Skipton will play a huge role in their future growth. Often small groups are out on a limb and struggle to gain funding from elsewhere, as they are not registered charities. Grassroots Giving enables us to really get to the heart of our local communities and we love being able to help causes that we see in action in our local neighbourhoods. We know that the money they receive will make an impact and this is really important to us.”
As part of its Grassroots Giving initiative, Skipton Building Society has also launched a series of free resources covering a range of key areas for community groups, which can all be downloaded for free at www.skiptongrg.co.uk/free-resources. To provide further added value the Society also provides a social network specifically to help community and voluntary groups get better connected, acting as a ‘hub’ for all Grassroots Giving followers, winners and past/future applicants, to enable knowledge sharing and networking.
Skipton Building Society launched its Grassroots Giving programme as part of its 160th anniversary celebrations in 2013.
For more updates on Skipton Building Society’s support of community organisations you can also follow updates via twitter.com/SkiptonBS_GrG and Facebook.com/skiptongrg.
