Community groups encouraged to apply for a share of £80,500

Skipton Building Society

Grassroots Giving was launched last year by one of the country’s oldest mutual’s, Skipton Building Society, to celebrate its 160th anniversary and Skipton is keen to point out that this was not just a one-off – with the Society this year pledging to support 161 grassroots groups, clubs or organisations with cash donations of £500 in 2014.

Stuart Stanley, manager at Skipton’s Rochdale branch, said: “We had an unbelievable number of applications for our new Grassroots Giving community funding stream in 2013. We were overwhelmed by the number of community groups and projects which put themselves forward – in fact, more than 1,000 groups applied.

“Even more encouraging was the number of votes cast for our shortlisted groups. Almost 20,000 people took the time to go online to skiptongrg.co.uk to support their favourite group. What a superb effort by these community-minded supporters!

“Now it’s time to tell Rochdale that Grassroots Giving is now open for 2014, and this time we’re going one better with 161 cash donations of £500 going to organisations when judging and voting is complete in November.”

During the online application process, applicants are simply asked to demonstrate how the £500 would make a difference to them, as the Society is keen to donate towards helping develop sustainable projects.

When the closing date of 31 July 2014 arrives, a shortlist of entries will be drawn up and placed into regional groups. Each shortlisted application will be summarised and posted on the Grassroots Giving website in August (Skiptongrg.co.uk) - then it’s over to the local communities across the UK to vote for who they’d like to see receive the 161 pots of support.

For more information on the criteria and how to apply visit www.skiptongrg.co.uk