Our Community Fund
The Newcastle Building Society Community Fund, at the Community Foundation serving Tyne & Wear and Northumberland, provides grants to local charities across the North East, Cumbria, and North Yorkshire.
Since 2016, we’ve awarded more than £1.7m to benefit local causes and make a real difference in the areas we’re based.
More recently, we’re continuing to support charities and projects linked to:
- Food poverty: helping our communities achieve food security
- Sustainability and the environment: helping our communities reduce their carbon impact or supporting biodiversity and conservation
- Work and opportunity: helping to develop regional talent and the opportunity to access decent work for those less advantaged in our communities
- Homelessness: working to end housing insecurity and reduce homelessness
- Debt management: providing advice, information, and guidance to help those most in need to develop their financial capability
Here’s just a few of the great causes we’ve recently supported:
Yatton House Society
Yatton House Society received a grant of £3,000 to install energy efficient insulation and glazing at their centre in Great Ayton, North Yorkshire.
Building Futures East
Building Futures East received a grant of £4,450 to help increase the capacity of their community garden, build new planters and polytunnels and help with staffing costs.
The riverside garden will help give local people a peaceful place to work together and build their skills, while the food grown there will help support Building Futures East’s foodbank with food for all its service users.
Tullie
Carlisle museum and cultural hub, Tullie, has used a £2,000 grant to support a volunteering project involving asylum seekers living in the city.
The £2,000 grant has been used to bring in experienced project leader and keen gardener, Chuck Whitehead, to run the project, as well as pay for the necessary gardening equipment.
Over 100 men and women have taken part in the fortnightly sessions at the garden throughout the past year, with some of the volunteers visiting outside of the dedicated sessions to help with more work.