charities Archives

Screwfix Foundation

The Screwfix Foundation works with both national and local charities, donating much needed funds to help all sorts of projects – from repairing buildings and improving facilities in deprived areas, to decorating the homes of people living with sickness and disabilities.

The Foundation supports projects with grants of up to £5,000 that will fix, repair, maintain and improve properties and community facilities for those in need by reason of financial hardship, sickness, disability, distress or other disadvantage in the UK.

All applications are reviewed individually by our team on a quarterly basis, the review dates are in February, May, August and November.

Yapp Charitable Trust

The Trust make grants to small registered charities with a total annual expenditure of less than £40,000 to sustain their existing work within the following areas:

Elderly people
Children and young people aged 5 to 25
People with disabilities or mental health problems
Moral welfare – people trying to overcome life-limiting problems of a social, rather than medical, origin (such as addiction, relationship difficulties, abuse, offending)
Education and learning (with a particular interest in people who are educationally disadvantaged, whether adults or children)

Grants are for core funding and are only awarded to registered charities that have been formally established for at least three years.

The Trust prioritises:

Work that is unattractive to the general public or unpopular with other funders
Services that help to improve the lives of marginalised, disadvantaged or isolated people
Applicants that can demonstrate an effective use of volunteers
Charities that seek to be preventive and aim to change opinion and behaviour through raising awareness of issues, education and campaigning
Applicants that can demonstrate (where feasible) an element of self-sustainability by charging subscriptions/fees to service users

There are no deadlines specified.

Grant size: Up to £3,000 per year for up to three years

Application process: Yapp Charitable Trust website

Sir James Knott Trust

Sir James Knott Trust supports charitable activity in Tyne and Wear, Northumberland, County Durham and Hartlepool.

The Trust is an excellent local funder that makes monthly decisions on applications of up to £1,000 and larger grants three times per year.

Special consideration is given to charitable activities known to have been of particular interest to Sir James Knott. They include: Providing opportunities for people to congregate such as youth clubs and projects to help the elderly. Sir James was concerned that people could find work and so they support training. He was keen to ensure that that people have a roof over their heads, where they are safe. Finally, Sir James and Lady Knott, having lost two of their sons in active service in the First World War were drawn to military and maritime good causes. .

The Trustees have wide discretion on the distribution of funds. They do not fund research or activity that has already taken place. They do fund faith based organisations as long as the activity is open to those of all faiths and none.

Monthly decisions on grants up to £1,000 and Trustees meet to consider larger grant applications three times a year. Grants totalling about £1.8million a year are made, funded from investment income. Read more here.

Please apply to the Trust using the new online facility.

Deadline: The Trust operates on a rolling grants programme. If you miss a deadline, your application will be considered at the following meeting. The 2021 deadlines are 1 March, 31 May and 31 August.

Community Foundation general applications

You can make a general application to the Community Foundation at any time. If it is eligible, they will look to match it to one of their Funds.

The Community Foundation awards grants to benefit people and places in Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, and across North East England, through nearly 300 different funds set up by people and organisations who want to make a difference. They know that applying for funding can be difficult, so they aim to help to make it as straightforward as possible.

Please read the guidance on their website carefully before starting an application and, if you have any questions, please get in touch.

Working With the VCS goes virtual

Monday 15 June saw our first ever online ‘Working With the VCS’ event bringing together 34 representatives from charities, community groups, North Tyneside Council, North Tyneside CCG, Primary Care Networks, VONNE, the North of Tyne Combined Authority and the private sector.

The theme of the event was Building a Recovery Plan for the VCS in North Tyneside and consisted of the following presentations which you can now view and download using the links below. You can also share your thoughts on VCS Recovery by completing this short survey by 26 June.

Vonne’s Carol Botten presented findings from VONNE’s North East VCSE COVID-19 impact survey. Download the slides here.

Felicity Shoesmith from North Tyneside Council outlined the early thinking on a recovery plan for the VCS in North Tyneside. View the draft recovery plan here. We would appreciate it if you could share your thoughts on the draft recovery plan via this short survey

Pauline Wonders from Family Gateway and Dean Titterton from YMCA North Tyneside reflected on the potential for a more collaborative approach to supporting beneficiaries.

Jackie Laughton from North Tyneside Council discussed the new Poverty Intervention Fund for North Tyneside. Download the slides here. Share your thoughts on this fund by emailing [email protected].

VCS Recovery in NorthTyneside

We believe that the voluntary sector should be front and centre of North Tyneside’s COVID-19 recovery plans. Despite a number of charities and community groups having to temporarily close their doors, others have been able to provide a remarkable response to support vulnerable residents during the COVID 19 pandemic. We have created this short animation to showcase some of the incredible work you have been doing. The animation was shown to members of the North Tyneside Strategic Partnership this week and will be shared with partners as part of the national #NeverMoreNeeded campaign.

North Tyneside VCS COVID-19 response from Robin on Vimeo.

We know full well that many of our members face some significant challenges to adapt and flourish in the COVID-19 ‘recovery’ phase and beyond. Based on the findings of VONNE’s recent survey, as well as conversations we’ve had with many of our members, we have identified a number of key areas of support that will be required by many organisations to help them adapt and thrive over the coming months and years. We appreciate that this will mean very different things to different types and sizes of organisations and that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.

Resuming services: although many organisations have continued to offer some level of service, support will be required by some to help resume and redesign face-to- face work.
Workforce: with many organisations having furloughed their staff and others significantly changing the way their workforce operates, we expect many organisations to require support to help manage their workforce in light of COVID-19.
Finance: many VCS organisations will have experienced a significant drop in income due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will require support to rebuild their finances in order that they can continue to offer vital services.
Governance: the COVID-19 pandemic has created significant challenges around governance for some organisations, but may also offer opportunities for organisations to merge.
Partnerships: whilst some VCS organisations have had to close their doors temporarily, other new neighbourhood-level ‘mutual aid’ groups have been formed. We are keen to support an ecosystem that enables all VCS organisations to work more collectively providing maximum benefit to our communities.
Volunteering: we have seen many more people step up to volunteer as part of the COVID-19 response. We are keen to build on the efforts of volunteers to support our recovery.

Working With the VCS event

Monday 15 June 10am to 11.30am on Zoom

We are keen to develop a VCS recovery plan that is designed by our members. For that reason we are holding a virtual Working With the VCS event on Monday 15th June from 10am – 11.30am. This meeting will provide an opportunity to hear from Carol Botten, Chief Executive at VONNE, as she provides a summary of findings from VONNE’s recent VCS survey. It will also offer an oppor-tunity for organisations to discuss what support they would like to access to help with recovery, as well as what support they might be able to offer others. Please register in advance for this event so that we can send you a link to the Zoom meeting.

George Bairstow Charitable Trust

Grants are available for the provision of Emergency Aid in communities, the encouragement of volunteering among young people and the enhancement of skills among young people. The Trustees acknowledge the unique challenges faced by the world at this current time and remain ‘open for business’, welcoming new grant applications.

The Trust has few restrictions on the purpose for which a grant may be made, providing it is in keeping with the aims. Capital investments, expeditions, projects and other costs will be considered. Trustees are particularly keen to support small organisations or groups that make a direct impact on communities. Previous grants have typically been for less than £10,000.

No deadline

New digital portal to strengthen safeguarding guidance for charities

The Government has launched a new online portal that will strengthen its support to charities handling safeguarding concerns or allegations.

Every organisation that delivers charitable activities has a responsibility to safeguard people from harm or abuse, whether they are staff members, volunteers, or other people who come into contact with your charity through its work. This tool will help charities in England to handle the reporting of safeguarding allegations about the behaviour or actions of a person in their charity.

The portal, based on Gov.uk, offers a step by step guide to help charities correctly manage their concerns, identify the right people to contact if needed and access helpful resources and advice.

The funding has also enabled the NCVO to bring together a partnership of organisations to develop a series of free, high-quality factsheets, practical tools, podcasts and videos to promote a good safeguarding culture in charities.

New Trustee Recruitment Guide Launched

Charity trustees are some of the most important people in a charity. They have the potential to enable a charity to thrive or bring its operations grinding to a halt, and a charity’s service users are dependent on its trustees to make good decisions and lead well. Charities need a wide range of skills from their trustees, to understand and address the many challenges charities can face and navigate the changing context in which they operate. They need trustee boards that can challenge one another and the status quo, that bring different experiences, knowledge and ideas, but that are able to work constructively and enthusiastically as a team. That is why board diversity is so important – because diversity brings together the rich mix of qualities that make a healthy and effective board.

Getting on Board has launched new free guidance for charities looking to recruit diverse, robust and effective trustee boards. Getting on Board is a charity that helps individuals, employers and members of professional networks become new leaders in communities through board-level volunteering. They collated the learnings from their Trustee Recruitment Pathways programme into a comprehensive eight step guide to recruiting trustees.

Read the full guidance here.

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charities

Screwfix Foundation

Yapp Charitable Trust

Sir James Knott Trust

Community Foundation general applications

Working With the VCS goes virtual

VCS Recovery in NorthTyneside

Working With the VCS event

George Bairstow Charitable Trust

New digital portal to strengthen safeguarding guidance for charities

New Trustee Recruitment Guide Launched

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