Vital Funds

We have a number of funds that people can donate to. We have funds supporting the arts, climate change, Women, young people and more. Sometimes donors aren’t sure of the cause they want to support but want to give back to a place. Vital Funds allow them to support an area and leave what is supported to us. We will always use the funds to respond to the need at the time. Currently the fund is focussed on supporting organisations helping people and communities affected by recent events in our towns and cities.

Grants go to organisations supporting a range of activities in the area. We use our own research and work with local infrastructure bodies to identify where need is and work with organisations addressing those needs.

We tend to identify specific organisations addressing specific needs for grants from this fund. Sometimes we may do a call out which will be advertised in our eNews which you can sign up for via the short form at the bottom of this page.

Organisations that are eligible for our funding may still apply for a grant from our other funds in the usual way here.

You may also be able to apply for help from other funders. Information about where to go for help with funding is available on our website here.

We understand recent events are having a big impact on individuals and families. Our Vital Funds have been set up to support charities and community organisations that can help people most affected. We are not providing grants directly to individuals or families themselves. Information about where to go for support is here.

Thank you for your generosity. You can donate via our Enthuse page or if you want to give direct please contact us on 0191 222 0945 and we can discuss the best ways for you to donate.

To make sure we can run the fund as simply and effectively as we can, we pool all contributions in each Vital Fund for distribution. So, we can’t accept gifts which are restricted for a specific organisation. If you have a particular charity or community group you want to support, we encourage you to give to them directly.

Our focus with these funds is on getting financial support to charities and community organisations. We are not able to handle donations of goods or in-kind services ourselves.

We appreciate the generosity of people who’d like to fundraise for us. If you do, you should read out guidelines here.

All funds contribute towards our charitable activities. This means we don’t have to fundraise for our own costs in competition with the charities we’re here to help.

Currently we are adding donations to the annual income from the fund to distribute now and we will retain 5% of the cash amount you donate. That means if your gift is eligible, the cost contribution will in effect come from the Gift Aid we claim.

Outside of this current focus for the fund, donations are added to invested funds and we apply our normal contribution rates applicable to unrestricted funds based on the value of the fund.

There are unavoidable fees attached to gifts made through the Enthuse platform but you can choose how much you contribute. If you would prefer to avoid these by giving by bank transfer, please contact us.

The Vital Funds support their respective areas year-round for a range of activities. In the unlikely event that we are unable to commit all of the funds given to respond to the recent events we will use any remaining funds to support organisations in the selected area in line with the general criteria for the fund.