Charity Bank to open regional office for Yorkshire and Humber
Howard Lake | 19 June 2007 | News
Charity Bank, the UK’s first fully authorised bank that is also a registered charity, is to open an office in Leeds, supported by an investment of £10 million from Yorkshire Forward.
‘Charity Bank in the North’ will support third sector and social enterprise organisations in Yorkshire and Humber.
The investment by Yorkshire Forward is the first of its kind by a Regional Development Agency.
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Charity Bank was launched five years ago with the aim of creating a sustainable source of loan funds for charities and social enterprises that commercial lenders generally can not or will not assist.
Yorkshire Forward’s investment will improve the resource base for local community enterprise by providing access to loan finance. It will also help to counter the effects of the new European Funding programme, which will significantly reduce the level of funding available for community economic development.
Thea Stein, Executive Director of Economic Inclusion for Yorkshire Forward said: “This is a ground-breaking project for Yorkshire Forward that will ensure that there are financial instruments in place to aid third sector organisations away from grant dependency and into sustainable self sufficiency.
“We will be working with Regional Development Agencies in other regions to help them to develop their own additional resources for third sector organisations, and make a similar system of funding available across the country.”
Malcolm Hayday, Chief Executive of Charity Bank said: “We welcome the innovative lead that Yorkshire Forward has taken to open up access to finance for organisations throughout the region, and which adds another element to the ‘funding mosaic’, enabling these organisations to move between investment readiness, small grants support, longer-term investment and loan finance.
“We are looking forward to helping transform the opportunities for community groups and social enterprises wherever they work and to making the Charity Bank in the North, a permanent feature of the northern financial sector.”
It is expected that the Leeds office of Charity Bank, will be open for business in the autumn.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.