Yorkshire Funders Members’ Day & AGM

Join grantmaking colleagues from across the county (and beyond) in the magnificent surroundings of the Piece Hall in Halifax for a stimulating and thought-provoking members day and Annual General Meeting.

To kick start the day we will hear from Andrew Ballinger, from The Ballinger Charitable Trust 

Andrew is one of the four trustees of the family foundation and has led their response to the current challenges facing people in the Northeast. In the last two years they have:

• Re-designed their grant programmes to minimise time and focus on relationships, which has led to…
• Working collaboratively with other funders (distributing money on their behalf most recently) and ultimately leading to …
• The decision in 2023 to spend down their £50m fund over the next 20 years.

Then we will share the findings from our Autumn member survey. This survey, coming to you shortly, will reveal the grantmaking trends across our members, identify what approaches are being used to address need, and evidence the financial scale and reach of your funds.

Following a panel of speakers to reflect on the current issues from governance, legal and investment perspectives we will have a chance to network and enjoy lunch.

After lunch and plenty of time to enjoy the incredible surroundings of the Piece Hall we will have breakout sessions where hot grantmaking topics from the survey and your feedback can be discussed in detail.

• Getting the fundamentals right – how do we get the best policies, grant making criteria, application processes, and assessment methods?
• Collaboration in all its varieties  – who is doing collaboration, what’s helping, what’s hindering, who’d like to do more.
• Investments and income in a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity
• Responding to increased demand – what effective strategic responses are members using?

We will close our day with the formal Annual General Meeting where members can hear from the Yorkshire Funders board of trustees, receive our accounts for 2023/24 and ask any questions of the trustees.

Booking for the Members day and AGM will open on 2nd September. There will be a small charge to cover venue hire and catering.