Skipton Charitable Foundation

About us

The Skipton Building Society Charitable Foundation (“the Charitable Foundation”) was established in February 2000 supporting registered charities throughout the UK and distributing donations. Skipton Building Society makes an annual payment to the Charitable Foundation to fund these donations.

Independent of Skipton Building Society, the Charitable Foundation’s decisions are made by its Board of Trustees.

The Charitable Foundation is run by seven trustees, including five who are independent of Skipton Building Society. The Trustees decide which good causes will benefit from the Charitable Foundation’s support. The Charitable Foundation is supported by volunteer administrators.

What we support

Please read our full Donations Policy.

We will consider donations:

The Charitable Foundation supports registered charities based in the UK where there is clear benefit to the recipients. Donations of up to £3,000 will be considered, that enable specific tangible items or activities to be purchased rather than donating to general funds.

Consideration will be given to charities whose objectives are:

To benefit children (aged under 16), through their education and or welfare i.e. literacy, numeracy and reducing poverty.
To provide youth schemes and projects supporting those in their late teens / early 20s in socially deprived areas with literacy, numeracy and employment.
To support the elderly by reducing isolation, helping reduce the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s.

The Charitable Foundation requests that the items are to be used directly by beneficiaries and anticipate that the charity becomes the owner of that equipment, responsible for the on-going upkeep and maintenance. The following list provides some examples of activities likely to fall within our main areas of focus:

Sensory toys and equipment for children with special needs.
Items to care for isolated and/or vulnerable elderly people.
Support of specially adapted equipment to be used by people with physical / mental / communication disabilities.
Apparatus for children with special needs.
Items or tangible social activities for Community Centres providing a benefit to many in the local community and which meet the Charitable Foundations Donations Policy.
Provision of tangible and social interaction activities for the vulnerable and/or isolated.

We won’t consider donations:

The following are (non-exhaustive) examples of projects or activities which the Charitable Foundation considers do not fall within its Donations Policy and which it would be unable to support.

Applications for general on-going funding, running costs, rent, utility costs medical research, sponsorship, payment of salaries, counselling or expenses.
Requests for administration equipment such as telephones, security systems or computers, for a charity's own use.
Towards restoration and upkeep of buildings or maintenance of vehicles.
Causes serving only a specific sector of the community selected on the basis of ethnic, racial, political or religious grounds/advancement.
Overseas travel, expeditions or educational expenses, including causes that would otherwise qualify for support but require funds for activities outside the UK.
To non-registered charities, individuals or large national charities.
Support of activities which fall within an existing statutory funded budget or are the responsibility of central or local government even if the budget is insufficient to fund the activity applied for.

Please note: following a successful application, a charity must wait 5 years before re-applying. If an application was unsuccessful a charity must wait 2 years before re-applying.

Case studies

Leuchie House

Caring for a loved one living with the long-term effects of a neurological condition such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s or stroke can be isolating at the best of times, and the Covid-19 pandemic has only compounded this, leaving many carers feeling physically and emotionally exhausted. The demand for respite has never been greater, and we are incredibly grateful to the Skipton Building Society Charitable Foundation for funding the purchase of additional slings needed for us to reopen for respite and provide the specialist care these families require, ensuring their safety and comfort during their respite break.

Poole Sea Cadets

We would like to thank the Skipton Charitable Foundation for the kind donation of £2,800 to help us purchase some laptops for our cadets. We have managed to use them already to allow them to log onto E DofE a platform set up to log their skill, physical and volunteering activities. We hope to be able to use them to conduct a few RYA interactive courses in the near future. These laptops will also support the delivery of some content as we now have instant access for volunteers who do not have their own laptops. Again, many thanks for the donation you have made a massive difference to our cadets and expanded their “Cadet experience” tremendously.

The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice

On behalf of the patients, their families and carers, staff and volunteers at The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice I am writing to you in appreciation to thank you for your generous award of £1,500 towards buying a SEM Scanner for the hospice. We are extremely grateful for your support. Your help makes a real difference and allows us to continue to provide free specialist palliative care for people, aged sixteen years and over with life limiting illnesses, and support for their families and carers. Every year we care for over 1,200 patients, families and carers for whom we ensure the highest possible quality of care.

Yellow Submarine

Oxfordshire learning disabilities charity Yellow Submarine was delighted to receive nearly £3000 from Skipton Building Society to support its Compass project. The funds will be spent on equipping a new space to ensure the successful continuation of Compass, which teaches life skills and offers an introduction to a workplace environment for adults with learning disabilities and autism.

Yellow Submarine is an award-winning Oxfordshire charity that believes people with learning disabilities and Autism deserve to live life to the full. It organises social clubs, activity days and residential holidays for adults and for young people, and it runs sheltered workplace training for adults within its social enterprise cafés in Oxford and Witney.

How we work

How the application process works

Complete the online application form, you will receive a confirmation email on submission.

Our Board of Trustees will review each application against our Donations Policy and decide which good causes will benefit from our support.

Responsibility is on the charity to submit a complete and accurate application form.

If your application does not meet our guidelines set out in the Donation Policy, we will contact you to let you know we are unable to proceed.

Meeting dates

The trustees meet at the beginning of March, June, September and December. Submission deadline dates are the 15th of the month prior to each meeting.

Please note: Applications received after the cut-off date will be presented at the following quarterly meeting.

Following the meeting

We will contact you via email following the meeting with the outcome, this can take up to 28 days.

The successful charities will be notified via secure email (from ) and will be asked to provide charity bank details within 2 weeks.

We will then transfer the funds via an electronic bank payment to the charity bank account.

We may contact you to seek your permission to feature your charity on our website following a successful application. With your charity’s permission, these details will be published on https://www.skiptoncharitablefoundation.co.uk/

FAQs

How long do I have to wait for a decision?

The Trustees meet quarterly in March, June, September and December. Please see details of our cut off dates for the consideration of applications on the “How We Work section”. Following the meeting we will email you and let you know whether or not your application has been successful.

You only donate to registered charities, what does this mean?

The Charitable Foundation only supports charities registered with one of the following:

The Charity Commission for England and Wales
The Charity Commission in Northern Ireland
The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator

How much can I apply for?

Charities that apply to the Charitable Foundation will be considered for donations up to £3,000.

The Charitable Foundation's emphasis is on smaller amounts to ensure as many good causes as possible throughout the UK are supported.

When considering requests for donations we may need to ask for additional information from the applicant or from third parties to substantiate the application and should the application be successful we may request evidence of payments made.

(e.g. copy invoices/proof of price and/or purchase, references and evidence as to how our support will benefit/has benefited recipients)

Right to access your personal data	We will give you details of the personal data we hold about you upon request
Right to have inaccurate or incomplete personal data corrected	We will correct and/or update your personal data if you inform us or we identify that it is inaccurate or incomplete.
Right to request erasure	We will delete your personal data in accordance with our Record Retention Policy, as stated above.

Skipton Charitable Foundation. Giving something back…