Building Bradford Skills Fund

The Charitable Foundation's Building Bradford Skills Fund supports chosen charities to provide employability support to increase job prospects in Bradford.

Small Change Big Difference® Fund

The Charitable Foundation’s Small Change Big Difference®Fund makes donations of up to £2,500 to UK registered charities, nominated by the Society’s members and colleagues. 

Building Bradford Skills Fund

The Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation’s Building Bradford Skills Fund will see £1million invested in charities delivering employability skills, training and services in the Bradford District between 2025-2028.

All registered charities that met the Fund’s criteria were invited to apply for funding until applications closed in September 2024. Following review and scoring by the Charitable Foundation’s trustees, the Fund is supporting the following four charities until 2028:

Bradford Central Foodbank
Lower Grange Community Association
Smart Works
The Cellar Trust.

Small Change Big Difference® Fund

Through the Small Change Big Difference® Fund, trustees consider nominations to charities providing urgent support or relief to those experiencing financial hardship, to enable them to address immediate needs.

The Charitable Foundation accepts nominations from Yorkshire Building Society members and colleagues. Donations range from £250 to £2,500. It particularly welcomes nominations from charities that are working in areas of deprivation, and charities that have an income turnover of less than £100,000.

Please read the full guidance notes here prior to making an application.

To be considered for a donation the charity must meet the following basic eligibility criteria:

  • Registered with the Charity Commission, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland or the Scottish Charity Regulator
  • Funding will help provide urgent support or relief to those experiencing financial hardship e.g. food banks
  • Nominated by a Yorkshire Building Society member or colleague
  • Beneficiaries in the UK
  • Have not received a YBS Charitable Foundation donation in the last 2 years
  • Annual returns submitted on time to the Charity Commission, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland or the Scottish Charity Regulator.

The following will NOT be considered:
 

  • Applications that do not fit the criteria outlined in the guidelines
  • Charities serving a specific sector of the community selected on the basis of political or religious grounds/ advancement
  • Animal welfare charities
  • Charities with beneficiaries not in the UK
  • Community Interest Companies, community or voluntary organisations that are not registered charities.

How do I make a nomination?

Applications for the Small Change Big Difference® Fund are currently being accepted from members and colleagues of the Society and you can nominate a charity here.


All applications are reviewed on a quarterly basis by our trustees.

The trustees decide which applications to approve based on which charities are the strongest fit for the Foundation’s guidelines and how much funds are available. Once trustees have reviewed all applications, we will inform the colleague or member and the charities of their decision. Donations are sent directly to successful charities at the end of each quarter via our charity payment partner, Charities Trust.

The deadlines for applications are: 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December annually.

How is the Foundation funded?

Building Bradford Skills Fund

Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) funds the Building Bradford Skills Fund, alongside additional funding which covers the day-to-day running costs of the Fund. 

Small Change Big Difference® Fund

The Society’s members and colleagues fund the Charitable Foundation’s Small Change Big Difference® (SCBD) Fund through the Society’s SCBD® scheme.

As a member, you can opt-in to donate the annual pence of interest from your accounts, no more than 99p per year, to the Charitable Foundation. Every penny received helps us to support local charities!

You can opt-in or out of the scheme by clicking the button below or by visiting your local branch.
Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation is committed to transparency and we work with 360Giving to publish information about our grants. Using the 360Giving Data Standard, our awarded grants since 2021 are available as an Excel spreadsheet. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This means the data is freely accessible to anyone to be used and shared as they wish. The data must be attributed to Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation.