Leeds Building Society Foundation
As of July 2022, we’ve shifted our Charitable Foundation’s focus to supporting those in need of a safe and secure home, and we want to provide UK registered charities with grants to support this purpose.
About the Foundation
Since 1999, the Foundation has donated more than £2 million to 3,000 local projects and good causes across the UK. Previously the Foundation provided support to those who were disadvantaged or in vulnerable circumstances.
The Foundation is run independently by a board of eight trustees, who review the applications every three months.
The Foundation receives funding from Leeds Building Society and from members' donations via the Your Interest in Theirs scheme. Members can opt-in to donate the pence of their interest which is then equally split between Leeds Building Society Foundation and our national charity partner.
2023 review
In 2023, we funded £339,486 in grants and supported 46 charities. Find out how we awarded grants in 2023 and our impact by reading our report.
We recommend reading our report to understand the type of grants we tend to award and the organisations we fund.
Criteria themes
Your project must meet our purpose through one or more of the following criteria themes:
- Financial stress
- Security and refuge
- Quality and suitability of housing
Applications can also apply under the theme ‘Health and wellbeing support for those experiencing homelessness’ if it's part of wraparound support and the application also meets at least one of the other themes.
We welcome applications from those who take a Housing First and/or relationship-based approach. In your application we’d like to see evidence of:
- Strength-based practice
- Trauma-informed care
- Psychologically-informed environments
Exclusions
The Foundation is unfortunately unable to support:
- Religious, military, or political projects
- Charities or projects based overseas
- Individuals (including sponsorship)
- Animal welfare projects
- Local Scouts, Brownies or Girlguiding groups
- Medical research
- Retrospective costs (reimbursement for costs already incurred)
- Charities and projects that don’t align with our purpose of supporting people in need of a safe and secure home
Our grants
Our grants provide funding to projects that support those in need of a safe and secure home.
View our grant giving guide (PDF, 834KB) for more information, including eligibility and scoring criteria.
You can apply for a small grant or a large grant, depending on how much you want to apply for.
Small grants (up to £1,000)
For our small grants, we only accept requests to fund capital expenditure. This means that we fund the purchase of items used to directly help those in need, rather than contributing to a charity's running costs.
We'll only accept small grant applications from UK registered charities with a turnover of less than £1 million.
Small grants meeting dates
- Wednesday 26 March 2025 (Application window: Friday 20 December 2024 - Monday 10 February 2025)
- Wednesday 25 June 2025 (Application window: Tuesday 11 February 2025 - Friday 9 May 2025)
- Wednesday 1 October 2025 (Application window: Saturday 10 May 2025 - Monday 11 August 2025)
- Wednesday 3 December 2025 (Application window: Tuesday 12 August 2025 - Monday 3 November 2025)
Large grants (£25,000-£100,000)
Applicants for large grants can apply for between £25,000 and £100,000. This can be a one year grant, or split across two or three years.
You can apply for core, project and/or capital costs. You can apply for new work or existing work, as long as you’re not requesting retrospective funding. We advise you to apply for what you need the most, in order to support those in need of a safe and secure home.
To be eligible for a large grant your organisation:
- Must be a registered charity
- Must be based in Yorkshire and/or the North East
- Have an annual turnover of £5 million or less
To apply for a large grant, we now have a two-stage application process. For stage one, please email foundation@leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk an expression of interest paragraph (no more than 300 words) with a brief description of your organisation and what you're seeking funding for. This will then be reviewed by our Grants Manager. If your request is eligible, the second stage will be a full application form and a link to the form will be emailed to you.
Submit an expression of interest for a large grant
Large grants meeting dates
- Wednesday 26 March 2025 (Application window: Friday 20 December 2024 - Monday 10 February 2025)
- Wednesday 25 June 2025 (Application window: Tuesday 11 February 2025 - Friday 9 May 2025)
- Wednesday 1 October 2025 (Application window: Saturday 10 May 2025 - Monday 11 August 2025)
- Wednesday 3 December 2025 (Applications closed)
After you've applied
Your application will be considered at the next scheduled meeting.
If your application is successful, you’ll be contacted within eight weeks after the meeting date. You’ll need to complete a short impact form at the end of each year of funding.
Unsuccessful applications
If you applied for a small grant, you can apply for funding again, but not for the same items of expenditure.
If you applied for a large grant, you can apply for funding again 12 months after your last application.
Unfortunately, we're unable to give feedback on unsuccessful applications.
Contact us
If you have any questions about our grants, please email foundation@leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk or call us on 03300 081 604.
Read the Foundation’s privacy policy (PDF, 168KB) to learn how we process your data when you apply for funding.