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Flood relief effort wins major prizes for South Yorkshire Community Foundation

South Yorkshire Community Foundation has been recognised for its work to support the flood victims after last year's devastating downpours. At the annual Institute of Fundraising National Awards, they were awarded the prestigious 'Fundraising Team of the Year' and 'Best Local/Regional Campaign' for their work on the Flood Disaster Relief Fund.
The Disaster Relief Fund set up by South Yorkshire Community Foundation in the wake of last June’s devastating flooding has also been judged “outstanding” in an independent evaluation. The evaluation was undertaken by Insync Foundation for Equality and Social Inclusion and looked at the Flood Fund in terms of effectiveness, impact and value.
Production of the report was kindly supported by the four South Yorkshire Councils.
In total the fund has supported a total of 2,236 households and 28 groups via 3,263 payments totalling just under £1.1 million.

[ Read the report ]

23 July 2008

Thanks a million - or ten

Local Yorkshire entrepreneur, Jimi Heselden, has donated the massive sum of £10,000,000 to set up his own charitable fund with Leeds Community Foundation, to benefit causes throughout Yorkshire. Leeds Community Foundation provides donors with expertise in charitable investment in the local community. It will help Mr Heselden identify worthwhile projects in the local area, and ensure the money makes a real difference to the local community.

Jimi, aged 59, is the owner / director of Hesco Bastion, a Leeds-based manufacturing company. Keen to support charitable causes, he has always given generously, particularly to local hospitals, hospices and children’s charities.

Having had a bumper year in 2007-8, he decided to set up the fund to make sure he could continue to make donations well into the future. He says,

“I have worked hard all my life and have established a very successful company. I feel that I really ought to be putting something back and one way I can do this is by supporting local charities.”

Born and brought up in Halton Moor, Leeds (one of the more deprived parts of the city), Jimi left school at 15 to work in the local coal mines. “In those days," he says, "it was working in Blakey’s boot factory in Armley or down the pits. There was not much choice”.

After five years, at the time of the miners' strikes, he left the pits and set up his first business – sand blasting large pipes for the North Sea oil rigs.

He rented some land in Leeds and it was here that he made a discovery that has lead him to establish the successful manufacturing business he runs today with a multi-million turnover, employing over 350 people on four sites in Leeds.

Hesco Bastion products can now be found the length and breadth of the country: on motorway embankments; on large walls which are then clad with bricks, and, more recently, as flood protective equipment.

In 1991, Jimi received a call from the Ministry of Defence who had read about his inventions. Orders quickly followed from the Dutch, the Danish, the United Nations peace-keeping forces and then the USA. The company regularly receives “bluies” – airmail letters from armed personnel who say how Hesco equipment has saved their lives.

Jimi has set up what is called a “donor-directed” fund, with the Leeds Community Foundation. The Foundation’s Chief Executive, Sally-Anne Greenfield says,

“We received a call from Jimi saying he wanted to set up a Fund but that we had to move quickly. Within seven days the Fund was established and had already made its first donation and we are now working to continue to make donations to causes in which he and his family are interested.”

Further information can be obtained from Sally-Anne Greenfield Leeds Community Foundation, 1st Floor, 6 Lisbon Square, Leeds LS1 4LY. Tel: 0113 242 2426.

4 April 2008

Community Foundation for Northern Ireland makes unique social investment in Charity Bank

The Community Foundation for Northern Ireland has announced a £500,000 capital investment in Charity Bank. The first-ever investment by a Community Foundation in the UK’s only not-for-profit bank, the funds will help Charity Bank to increase its affordable social loans to community organisations, charities and social enterprises in Northern Ireland.

According to Avila Kilmurray, Director of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, the social investment aims to ease the sector’s transition from dependence on European funding and to increase the sustainability and impact of local third-sector organisations. In addition, Charity Bank is providing a social dividend to CFNI to help develop staff expertise in building community assets.

“We are delighted to make this innovative investment and look forward to developing our relationship with the Charity Bank in the longer term”, said Kilmurray.

Malcolm Hayday, Chief Executive of Charity Bank, welcomed the innovative investment. Says Hayday: “We look forward to developing our partnership, helping productive community asset-building and enabling disadvantaged communities to maximise income-generation. This will also strengthen the Community Foundation’s role as more than a grant-maker both in Northern Ireland and among community foundations.”

Charity Bank is a unique organisation: the world’s only authorised bank that is also a registered general charity. Launched in 2002, it aims to transform the financial landscape of the sector by facilitating a more diverse approach to funding, improving organisational strength, and setting organisations on the road to independence.

Charity Bank works to increase the long-term viability of community organisations, and the sector as a whole, supporting those working in under-served areas which typically can’t get access to finance through commercial lenders. To date it has agreed loans totalling more than £55 million for more than 500 charitable organisations, over 60 per cent of which has been targeted in under-served communities, reaching three million people across the UK.

Organisations interested in finding out more should contact Fiona O’Toole at the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland on 028 9024 5927 or Niamh Goggin, Charity Bank on 07702 835672 for further details.

29 January 2008