Charitable foundation
Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation is a registered charity independent of Yorkshire Building Society.
Since 1999, the Charitable Foundation has donated over £10 million to charities and good causes across the UK.
The Charitable Foundation currently has two funds:
Building Bradford Skills Fund
The Charitable Foundation's Building Bradford Skills Fund supports chosen charities to provide employability support to increase job prospects in Bradford.
This fund is closed to new applications.
Small Change Big Difference® Fund
The Charitable Foundation’s Small Change Big Difference®Fund makes donations of up to £2,500 to UK registered charities, nominated by the Society’s members and colleagues.
This fund is open to nominations.
Building Bradford Skills Fund
The Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation’s Building Bradford Skills Fund will see £1million invested in charities delivering employability skills, training and services in the Bradford District between 2025-2028. The funding was made possible thanks to a donation from Yorkshire Building Society.
The Bradford District has the largest working age population in the UK with over a quarter of residents aged 18 or under. However, youth and long-term unemployment continues to be a concern, with Bradford’s working age population having lower than average qualification levels. Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation wants to help to address these challenges. Specifically, the Fund is supporting projects that are delivered in the city’s most deprived wards of Bowling & Barkerend, Bradford Moor, City, Clayton & Fairweather Green, Eccleshill, Great Horton, Little Horton, Manningham, Royds, Tong and Wibsey (as measured in the English Indices of Deprivation 2019).
All registered charities that met the Fund’s criteria were invited to apply for funding until applications closed in September 2024. Following review and scoring by the Charitable Foundation’s trustees, the Fund is supporting the following four charities until 2028:
Bradford Central Foodbank
Lower Grange Community Association
Smart Works
The Cellar Trust
Small Change Big Difference® Fund
Through the Small Change Big Difference® Fund, trustees consider nominations to charities providing urgent support or relief to those experiencing financial hardship, to enable them to address immediate needs.
In 2024, the Trustees completed a strategic review of the Foundation to improve impact in our communities. As a result, they felt the previous priority areas of alleviating poverty and improving health/saving lives were extensive and not fully aligned to the Society’s community programme of supporting people with financial wellbeing. In moving to one aligned priority, the trustees hope funding will focus support for charities that provide urgent support or relief to those experiencing financial hardship, deepening the financial resilience of our communities.
The Charitable Foundation accepts nominations from Yorkshire Building Society members and colleagues. Donations range from £250 to £2,500. It particularly welcomes nominations from charities that are working in areas of deprivation, and charities that have an income turnover of less than £100,000.
To be considered for a donation the charity must meet the following basic eligibility criteria:
Registered with the Charity Commission, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland or the Scottish Charity Regulator
Funding will help provide urgent support or relief to those experiencing financial hardship e.g. food banks
Nominated by a Yorkshire Building Society member or colleague
Beneficiaries in the UK
Have not received a YBS Charitable Foundation donation in the last 2 years
Annual returns submitted on time to the Charity Commission, the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland or the Scottish Charity Regulator.
The following will NOT be considered:
Applications that do not fit the criteria outlined in the guidelines
Charities serving a specific sector of the community selected on the basis of political or religious grounds/ advancement
Animal welfare charities
Charities with beneficiaries not in the UK
Community Interest Companies, community or voluntary organisations that are not registered charities.
How do I make a nomination?
Nominations for the Small Change Big Difference® Fund are accepted on an ongoing basis from members and colleagues of the Society.
You can nominate a charity here. If you are unable to make a nomination via the online form, please visit your nearest branch.
The annual deadlines for nominations are:
31 March
30 June
30 September
31 December
What happens after I have submitted a nomination?
All nominations are reviewed on a quarterly basis by our trustees. There are three stages to the process.
1
Basic eligibility checks
2
Trustee decisions
3
Payment to charities
Nominations which pass our basic eligibility checks are reviewed for approval by trustees on a quarterly basis. The trustees decide which nominations to approve based on which charities are the strongest fit for the Foundation’s guidelines and how much funds are available. Once trustees have reviewed all nominations, we will inform the colleague/member and charities of their decision.
Nominators and charities can expect to receive final decisions after the nomination deadline.
1 January – 31 March nominations have decisions in May.
1 April – 30 June nominations have decisions in August.
1 July – 30 September nominations have decisions in November.
1 October – 31 December nominations have decisions in February.
Donations are sent directly to successful charities at the end of each quarter via our charity payment partner (a third party), Charities Trust. Details of how to register with Charities Trust for payment is sent directly to successful charities.
In 2025, the Small Change Big Difference Fund nomination success rate was 41%.
How is the Foundation funded?
Building Bradford Skills Fund
Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) funds the Building Bradford Skills Fund, alongside additional funding which covers the day-to-day running costs of the Fund.
Small Change Big Difference® Fund
The Society’s members and colleagues fund the Charitable Foundation’s Small Change Big Difference® (SCBD) Fund through the Society’s SCBD® scheme.
As a member, you can opt-in to donate the pence of interest from your accounts annually to the Charitable Foundation. Every penny received helps us to support local charities! You can opt-in or out of the scheme by clicking the button below or by visiting your local branch.
Further information
To learn more about the Charitable Foundation’s trustees you can read their short biographies here.
Members can contact the Charitable Foundation by emailing community@ybs.co.uk or make an enquiry through the chat facility or their local branch.
To view the Annual Report and Accounts of the Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation, please visit Charity Commissions Webpage.
Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation is committed to transparency and we work with 360Giving to publish information about our grants. Using the 360Giving Data Standard, our awarded grants since 2021 are available as an Excel spreadsheet. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. This means the data is freely accessible to anyone to be used and shared as they wish. The data must be attributed to Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation.
To find out how the Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation instructs grantees to celebrate their successful Small Change Big Difference nomination, use YBSCF branding and inform the Foundation on the impact of funds visit: Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation - Successful Charities