FORTY-ONE Yorkshire-based community groups are celebrating after supporters helped them secure £20,500 funding from Skipton Building Society’s Grassroots Giving scheme.

Yorkshire voluntary groups were the big winners in the UK-wide scheme, with more small organisations winning the hearts and minds of the public from the region than any other.

Now in its sixth year, Grassroots Giving awards £500 to each winning group which has achieved a high enough proportion of the 50,000 votes cast. After making it through to the shortlisting stage, the building society profiled each group on its website and asked the public to vote for those they thought were the most deserving.

The top 165 winners included Yeadon War Memorial Project Committee, Chevin Socialites, The Sunbeam Support Group, Otley Carnival Committee, Otley Singers, The Friends of Nunroyd Park and Menston Cricket Club.

The groups are all run for their local communities, managed by volunteers and are largely self-funded.

The building society’s group chief executive David Cutter said: “These self-funded groups work hard to improve their local community and we’re proud that this funding from Skipton will play a huge role in their future growth.

“Often small groups are out on a limb and struggle to gain funding from elsewhere, as they are not registered charities. Grassroots Giving enables us to really get to the heart of our local communities and we love being able to help causes that we see in action in our local neighbourhoods.

“We know that the money they receive will make an impact and this is really important to us. It’s been a pleasure to inform these groups that we are able to support them and we look forward to their updates throughout 2019.”

As part of its Grassroots Giving initiative the building society also has a series of free resources covering a range of key areas for community groups, which can all be downloaded for free at www.skiptongrg.co.uk/free-resources.

The Grassroots Giving programme was launched as part of the building society’s 160th anniversary celebrations in 2013.

For more updates on Skipton Building Society’s support of community organisations follow updates via twitter.com/SkiptonBS_GRG or Facebook.com/skiptonbs.