Key Fund YorkshireCreating Sustainable Communities
Key Fund Yorkshire is a Community Development Finance Institution (CDFI), which aims to provide
loans and investments to community owned organisations working in disadvantaged communities in
Yorkshire and Humberside.
The Key Fund offers an innovative mix of flexible and accessible finance for the development
of social businesses. Once the finance is repaid it is subsequently re-loaned and re-invested in
the community. In recycling the money the Key Fund continues to break down barriers to access
finance and truly enables people and communities to reach their potential.
The Key Fund’s aims are to further economic, social and environmental regeneration in
deprived and disadvantaged communities throughout Yorkshire and the Humber. The Key Fund does this
by giving financial and enterprise development support to local people involved in a wide range of
social businesses including:
- Community and voluntary organisations seeking to develop ideas for generating their own income
- Individuals and groups starting up Social Enterprises
- Social Enterprises looking to grow and develop
- Social Firms which employ a significant number of staff with a disability, and use income generated from the provision of goods/services to pursue its social mission
- Credit Unions and other community saving and credit schemes
- Cooperatives, where a group of individuals with shared economic, social and cultural goals form a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise
Neighbourhood success stories range from Genesis Dental Care, a Yorkshire based social enterprise providing community dentistry services; to Harehills CIC, a community development organisation providing a high-quality business incubator and business support hub to a deprived area of Leeds. Todd Hannula, Director of Harehills CIC, said “The support from Key Fund was KEY as they played the early stage funding role to get us to the big money. Without their loan we likely would have not realised this £4.5M project.”
