A successful year of charitable giving for Leek Building Society’s Foundation

A year on from its launch, Leek Building Society celebrates the success of its Charitable Foundation, and how it’s enabled them to go even further in their charitable giving.

April 2022 marked a significant milestone in Leek Building Society’s 160-year history as it launched its Foundation. As a member-owned, mutual organisation, the Leek-based Society set up their Charitable Foundation to achieve a key part of their purpose – to make a positive difference to their local communities.

Now celebrating its first birthday, the Foundation highlights its achievements over the last 12 months, including approving grants totalling over £20,000 to 13 local charities and community groups.

Through donations and grants, the Foundation has been able to support a variety of projects, from youth groups to environmental initiatives, and from health and wellbeing programmes to local cultural events.

To commemorate their first birthday, Tim Edwards, Chair of the Leek Building Society Charitable Foundation, said:

“We’re delighted to be celebrating our first birthday and the success we’ve had in supporting the local community at such an important time. It's been a pleasure to issue grants to support so many worthwhile projects and we look forward to continuing our support to create positive change in the area.”

Highlighting how their Charitable Foundation has helped to create positive change and make a difference in the community, Sandra Sherratt, Project Development Officer at Dyslexia Association of Staffordshire, said:

“Last year, we received a donation from the Society’s Charitable Foundation to help towards our support to local people. So far, we’ve been able to utilise their grant by holding more than 40 individual sessions, including free dyslexia assessments for unemployed people. Both adults and children have benefitted by learning more about support needs and improving their literacy skills and coping strategies which has a lasting benefit for learning and in developing careers.”

Biddulph Youth & Community Zone also benefitted from one of their grants in 2022 and shared their progress so far after receiving funding for their ongoing garden project. Sharon Middling from the community group, said:

“Our garden is a community driven project, with volunteers at the heart of planning and developing it so its accessible to everyone. Thanks to the funding from the Foundation, we’ve managed to buy all the timber for the wheelchair friendly raised beds and plan on building these over the next few months. We’re trialling a solar panelled irrigation system to help during the summer months to water our crops. The purchase of more garden tools has also been a huge help as we now have more tools to go around, so volunteers can carry out more jobs together.”

For more information about the Leek Building Society Charitable Foundation and the application criteria, visit:

https://www.leekbs.co.uk/charitable-foundation/