Heart of Yorkshire Fund for the Selby District

The Heart of Yorkshire Fund for the Selby District, was established by a £2million donation from Selby District Council, invested as an endowment fund with Two Ridings Community Foundation. The annual interest from this endowment will be awarded in grants to support local people to deliver activities in their community, year on year, forever

This fund provides the local community with a lasting legacy: supporting local charitable activity in the former Selby District in a way that meets the identified needs in the area. Since the fund was established, Selby District Council has become part of North Yorkshire Council.

Fund priorities

This fund supports groups providing activity for the wellbeing of people in the Selby area (please see the map below). Organisations should clearing demonstrate how they are addressing local need in at least one of the following areas:

Health and wellbeing

• support older and vulnerable people to live dignified, productive and healthy lifestyles
• support children and young people to access and enjoy healthy lifestyles (this could be physical activity, access to the outdoors, improving their mental wellbeing)
• improve mental health and wellbeing.

Education and Training

• develop employability skills.
• provide volunteering opportunities.

Environment

• increased biodiversity
• support environmental improvements

Community Sector Resilience

• community spaces providing significant community value requiring funding to stay open.

We are also particularly interested in applications where people with lived experience (experts by experience) of the issues being addressed are involved with the design of the project and/or the running of the organisation / delivering the project.

What grants can be used for

You can apply for either an activity grant (up to £5,000) to help address a gap in provision or an Organisational Development grant (up to £10,000).

The Heart of Yorkshire Fund is committed to the principle of full cost recovery to ensure that groups are supported with ongoing sustainability. As part of your application you can request a contribution towards core overhead costs (e.g. rent/ heating/ lighting etc). For further information about full cost recovery please see our guide.

Small capital items may be included as part of a bid but should not make up more than 20% of what you are applying for.

The fund may support larger capital costs for community venues with a maximum award of 50% of the total project costs (i.e if your repairs equal £10,000 you can apply for up to £5,000 maximum). These will be prioritised based on supporting the applying venues to stay open.

Applying for an Organisational Development grant?

An Organisational Development grant is to strengthen groups and organisations through making a necessary developmental ‘step change’ needed to become more stable and resilient. Organisational Development focuses on supporting groups towards sustainability through improving capability and / or capacity. You can use this funding to create or make changes to your strategy, structure or processes for an entire system, your overall organisation, an area of work or a specific role or job. For example, maybe you need your rental costs covering for six months whilst you work on establishing new income to cover future rent. Perhaps you would like to train your staff or volunteers so that they are better equipped. Or you recognise the need for increasing your administration hours to review policies and procedures. Examples of what the fund can support are below (this list is not exhaustive):

• Business planning and development
• Developing governance and leadership (e.g. charity registration or registration as a form of social enterprise)
• Developing monitoring and learning
• Fundraising planning and development (note – we cannot fund commission-based work)
• Increasing leadership capacity to support collaboration and partnership working
• Marketing and communications
• Piloting a project that could create a new revenue stream
• Purchasing software to support your organisation
• Staff, key volunteer and trustee training
• Testing new ways of working
• Small capital costs (small capital items can form part of the budget but should not make up more than 20% of the amount applied for)

Applying for an Activity grant?

You can apply for direct activity / project costs and pilot projects. Grants can fund 100% of the activity costs or can be part of a combination of funding to meet the full amount needed, however it is unlikely that priority will be given to projects where the grant award would represent less than 20% of the total project cost. If you are applying for a percentage of the total costs, please tell us what other funding has been secured or how you will secure the remaining funds.

Some examples of what an Activity grant can support are below (this list is not exhaustive):

• Befriending schemes
• Activities to bring people together
• Information, advice and guidance
• Sporting activity
• Transition work for children going from primary school to secondary school
• Counselling and peer support groups
• Peer support groups
• Volunteer recruitment and training
• In Bloom groups