Charity Bank offers Yorkshire social enterprises ‘financial resilience’ support

Social businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber will be given financial support through a new programme established by the Key Fund the social bank Charity Bank.

Recognising the need to provide help for socially-orientated start-ups, the Early Days and Changing Ways initiative aims to provide assistance through “valuable information and advice on financial resilience”.

Cat Chimes of the Key Fund added, “Everything from sourcing capital to managing your cash, we can then go on to offer detailed one-to-one support to organisations that reflect their personal circumstances.

“The programme is funded to allow us to work closely with clients to really provide crucial support.”

Meanwhile Sam Tarff, CEO of the Key Fund, said, “We’re particularly keen to provide help against a backdrop of reducing grant support and tightening local authority budgets.

“By working together with Charity Bank, we think we can provide one of the most comprehensive and supportive programmes available to the sector.”

The programme is specifically aimed at ‘early days’ organisations – those in their infancy – and ‘changing ways’ groups – those going through transitions in supply or finance.

To begin the programme, a roadshow is being delivered at seven venues across Yorkshire and the Humber, starting in York on July 24 and ending in Hull in September.

Doncaster Refurnish is one organisation that has already benefited from an earlier programme. The organisation was set up to prevent functional furniture from ending up as waste in landfill sites – and also employed people with disadvantaged backgrounds or those who have special needs.

Andy Simpson, CEO of the organisation said, “The support we received has helped us to develop our capacity and infrastructure, financed our growth strategies and played an instrumental role in shaping our offer.”

The UK government has recently said in its 2014 social investment report that the nation has the “most advanced” social investment market.

Photo: Tax Credits via Flickr

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