Local youth charities and good causes encouraged to apply for grants totaling £150,000 from a North East charitable trust in latest funding round
Newbury, 10th September 2019 – Not-for-profit cloud platform The Good Exchange has today announced that £150,000 of funding is available to support young people in the North East of England.
County Durham Community Foundation (CDCF) is launching its youth social action programme by bringing together the Government and National Lottery Community Fund-backed #iwill programme and CDCF’s donors, to make £100,000 available to young people’s projects in County Durham, Darlington and Tees Valley. CDCF has also been working with another North East-based charitable trust, to channel an additional £50,000 towards projects that support vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in County Durham via The Good Exchange platform.
Working with The Good Exchange since March 2019, CDCF is using the platform to reach new groups, source new funding partners, and support local communities. CDCF also aims to encourage other funders and donors to collaborate to increase the amount of money available for these charities and community groups, and to pool their funds using the platform’s matching technology.
“Key factors in our decision to work with The Good Exchange included the fact that the platform would enable us to offer match funding and reach other funders that share in our charitable giving objectives,” said Michelle Cooper, Chief Executive of County Durham Community Foundation. “We’ve been impressed by the way that The Good Exchange has increased the range of charitable organisations applying for our grants and facilitated their fundraising through alternative routes, while simplifying the management of our donor-advised funds. This will help us to ensure that our #iwill Fund succeeds in its aim to boost participation in social action among children and young people in our local area.”
#iwill is a UK-wide Lottery campaign that aims to make social action part of life for as many 10 to 20 year-olds as possible by the year 2020. The National Lottery Community Fund and the Government Office for Civil Society have invested £2million this year to fund groups delivering activities such as campaigning, fundraising and volunteering, which create opportunities for young people to contribute to their local communities.
An example of a local charitable organisation hoping to make best use of The Good Exchange’s reach is the Karen Liddle School of Dance (KLSD CIC), an inclusive, not-for-profit community orientated dance studio based in Hartlepool. Established in 1987, KLSD CIC offers affordable dance classes to local children, from tap, jazz and ballet to street dance and musical theatre.
“We’re hoping to develop career pathways for our young people via workshops with ‘real world’ examples of how to gain employment and work within the performing arts industry,” said Dulcie Rodgers, Dance Instructor & Communications Manager at the KLSD CIC. “Our single application on The Good Exchange platform, will enable our fundraising project to be automatically matched with relevant funders and, in addition, we’ve been able to raise our profile, increase our network and start generating donations from the public. This has helped us to explore collaborations with other organisations who share our goal of supporting young people embarking on careers in the performing arts industry, with workshops and so on. We’d certainly encourage other local charities and good causes with similar goals to apply via The Good Exchange platform and benefit from these opportunities.”
Ed Gairdner, COO of The Good Exchange said, “Our work with CDCF has clearly demonstrated the benefits available to charitable funders. A wider range of local charitable organisations will now be able to gain access to multiple grants and find new routes to fundraise, donate in a different way and simplify their administrative processes. CDCF has been engaged in vital work in its local area for some time, and this focus on supporting charitable groups that help children and young people using matched #iwill Funds, is a perfect fit.”
For more information about the #iwill Fund and to start an application, please visit https://www.cdcf.org.uk/apply-for-a-grant/grants-for-groups/iwill-fund/ and https://app.thegoodexchange.com/funders/10863/county-durham-community-foundation
More information on the Karen Liddle School of Dance – and its previous ‘Dancing into volunteering!’ #iwill project – can be found here https://app.thegoodexchange.com/project/17190/karen-liddle-school-of-dance-klsd-cic/dancing-into-volunteering-iwill
Notes to editors
#iwill Fund
- The #iwill Fund is made possible thanks to £40 million joint investment from The National Lottery Community Fund and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to support young people to access high quality social action opportunities.
- The #iwill Fund brings together a group of organisations who all contribute funding to embed meaningful social action into the lives of young people.
- The #iwill Fund supports the aims of the #iwill campaign – to make involvement in social action a part of life for young people, by recognising the benefit for both young people and their communities.
- By bringing together funders from across different sectors and by making sure that young people have a say in where the funding goes – the #iwill Fund is taking a collaborative approach.
#iwill campaign
- The #iwill campaign is a collective effort involving over 900 partners from across the public, voluntary, education and business sectors with a vision to make meaningful social action part of life for 10- to 20-year olds by the year 2020, wherever they live and whatever their background.
- The #iwill campaign was launched in 2013 with cross-party and multi-sector support after research into how the business, education, public and voluntary sectors could support young people to engage in social action. The campaign is coordinated by Step Up To Serve, a charity registered in England & Wales (no. 1154588).
- HRH The Prince of Wales is Patron of Step Up To Serve and the #iwill campaign. For more information, visit www.iwill.org.uk and follow @iwill_campaign
The National Lottery Community Fund
- We are the largest community funder in the UK – we’re proud to award money raised by National Lottery players to communities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Since June 2004, we have made over 200,000 grants and awarded over £9 billion to projects that have benefited millions of people.
- We are passionate about funding great ideas that matter to communities and make a difference to people’s lives. At the heart of everything we do is the belief that when people are in the lead, communities thrive. Thanks to the support of National Lottery players, our funding is open to everyone. We’re privileged to be able to work with the smallest of local groups right up to UK-wide charities, enabling people and communities to bring their ambitions to life.
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About The Good Exchange
The Good Exchange is a transformational not-for-profit cloud platform specifically designed to match those organisations and individuals who have money to give to good causes with those who need it most; on a local, regional and national basis. As the only platform to bring together grant-making, donations, charitable projects and fundraising in one place, the automated matching system with its simple single on-line application form will revolutionise charitable giving, making it more accessible, transparent and collaborative. For the first time, those seeking to raise money for local good causes will be able to access all sources of funding including charitable trusts, corporate givers, fundraisers and public through a single process.
About County Durham Community Foundation
Established in 1995, County Durham Community Foundation is a local grant-making foundation. It is one of 46 Community Foundations in the UK, a network that actively promotes and facilitates local giving for local people. Nearly £100m was awarded in grants across the network last financial year, with County Durham awarding over £5 million to local groups in their region.
County Durham Community Foundation promotes lasting charitable giving, by bringing together donors with their chosen causes, through well targeted grants that make a genuine difference to the lives of local people, acting as a vehicle for individuals, families and companies who want to put something back into their local community, either in their lifetime, or through leaving a legacy.
Since 1995, County Durham Community Foundation has made grants over £40 million to groups and individuals across County Durham & Darlington on behalf of our donors. We currently manage over 200 funds which are all unique and tailor-made to suit the donor.
If you would like to know more about County Durham Community Foundation you can contact us on 0191 378 6340; or visit the website: www.cdcf.org.uk.
Media contacts
Charlotte Martin/Ella Pryor
The Good Exchange team at Finn Partners
TheGoodExchange@finnpartners.com
020 3217 7060
Press office – The National Lottery Community Fund
pressoffice@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk
020 7211 1888
Out of hours: 07867 500572