Fundraising & Donations

As an independent charity, York House receives no external revenue funding so we are always on the lookout for ways to raise money to maintain and enhance the building, buy new furniture and equipment and support our community projects.  We hire out rooms hold regular fundraising events (concerts, quizzes etc), gratefully receive any donations (directly or via the localgiving.org website) and also apply to external funders for grants to support specific projects.

FUNDRAISING EVENTS

Our Volunteers organise regular events at York House to raise funds for our charity and encourage a wide variety of different people and activities into the building.  Events so far include coffee mornings, quizzes, music, spoken word and comedy events.  Give your time to run an event or help in other ways such as baking a cake, taking a shift behind a bar or at a Volunteer Café, helping with set-up/tidy-up or by donating a raffle prize.

If you’ve got a good cause you want to raise money for, York House is the ideal venue for you to hold a fundraising event.  You can either hire the building and run your own event (and take all the profit for your chosen cause) or you can run an event in partnership with the York House Volunteers e.g. you organise the event and keep the ticket money, York House run the bar and keep the bar profit.
Contact the York House Office if you have an idea for a shared fundraising event.

Volunteering is a great way to make new friends and make a positive contribution to your community!  More About Volunteering at York House

DONATIONS & LOCALGIVING.ORG

Donations are always gratefully received!  You can either make donations directly to York House or on-line via the LocalGiving.Org website.

Visit our LocalGiving.Org Page

LocalGiving.Org is an on-line fundraising platform designed to give local charities the opportunity to take part in national fundraising initiatives; gain practical online fundraising experience and develop connections with new and existing supporters.  They offer opportunities for matched funding and fundraising competitions, you can either make a one-off donation or set up a Direct Debit to give a regular monthly amount.  If you are a UK Taxpayer, you can add GiftAid to increase the value of your donation.  Funds raised via our Local Giving page are used to support our community projects and to buy new equipment and furniture.

If you’ve got a fundraising idea for an event or challenge in aid of York House Centre, we’re always willing to provide advice and support.

During the summer of 2018, Essentially Local Magazine owner, Emma Johnson, completed an epic solo cycle ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats in under 2 weeks!  By setting up a ‘Fundraising Page’ on our LocalGiving.Org account, Emma raised a whopping £1100 (including GiftAid) from on-line donations for our  ‘Outside is for Everyone!’ project to make York House’s outside spaces fully accessible for all users and to encourage outside activities, including sports.  We used the money Emma raised to install a ramp to our AstroTurf area, so now our less physically able users can easily access this outdoor area.  Thanks Emma, you’re amazing!

GRANT FUNDING

York House is a self-funded charity, the income we receive from hiring out the various spaces around the building funds the day-to-day running costs for the building but we apply to external grant providers to help fund any major building work and our youth & community projects.  We have made many successful grant applications and have an excellent track record for managing the grants we receive, ensuring that we spend the money as outlined in our application and providing any post-grant reports and monitoring in a timely manner.

Youth Projects: we work in partnership with  Stony Stratford Town Council to fund and run our two Youth Clubs, supporting young people aged 7 to 18.  We use a wide variety of grant providers to fund our Act Out & Act Up affordable drama classes for young people aged 6 to 16 including Stony Stratford Town Council, Milton Keynes Community Foundation, Ancell Trust, Wolverton Science & Art Institute Fund, Backstage Trust, Tesco Bags of Help and donations from the York House Local Giving Fund.

Community Projects: we seek external grant funding to ensure that our community projects are provided free of charge or at a cost which is affordable for most families.  We want to make our community projects as accessible as possible for all sections of the community, encouraging social cohesion.  Our community projects have been supported by grant funding from Stony Stratford Town Council, Stony Stratford Business Association, Milton Keynes Community Foundation, Ecominds Lottery Fund (community gardens) and donations from the York House Local Giving Fund.

Building Projects: we have undertaken several large-scale building projects at York House over the past decade or so which have transformed the condition of the building, increased the variety of rooms we have to offer, and modernised the decor, furniture and facilities.  Major projects include the under-pinning of the building, installation of a new back door, installation of a disabled access toilet, a rear ground floor extension (to provide the Beechey Room, a new kitchen and a suite of storage rooms) and the total re-design and refurbishment of all our toilets.  We explored many funding opportunities to complete all this work and received funding from FCC Communities Fund (formerly WREN), s106 planning gain contributions via Milton Keynes Council, Milton Keynes Community Foundation, Stony Stratford Town Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation plus contributions from York House funds.

If you are aware of any other funding schemes which you think may be a ‘good match’ for York House Centre, please drop us a line with the details!