Grant Awards: Jimbo’s Fund 2025

15 Leeds community organisations have each received a share of £725,000 thanks to the latest round of Jimbo’s Fund. In a first for the fund, organisations could apply for up to £60,000 to cover a 3-year period, supporting sustainability during difficult times. 

Jimbo’s Fund was set up in 2008 by a local businessman, Jimi Heselden, to make a difference for people in Leeds. The programme funds a broad range of projects and activities that support people in the city who are experiencing adversity. Sadly, Jimi passed away in 2010, but the programme continues to support local projects across Leeds, carrying on his legacy. 

 

Funded Organisations

The organisations that were awarded funding in 2025 are:  

• • • Battle Scars 

• • • Community Unity 

• • • Conversation Club Leeds 

• • • Cross Green Growing Together 

• • • Dial Leeds Ltd 

• • • Kidz Klub 

• • • LS14 Trust 

• • • People in Action 

• • • People Matters (West Yorkshire) CIO 

• • • Reestablish 

• • • St Luke’s Cares 

• • • Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds (SARSVL) 

• • • The Conservation Volunteers 

• • • The Youth Association 

• • • West Yorkshire Destitute Asylum Network (WYDAN) 

 

Funded activities

The funded activities include:  

• • • Regular peer support groups for over 18s, 16-25s and over 50s, which are ‘a lifeline, where people feel accepted and no longer isolated’. 

• • • Seconding a Community Development Worker to work with local people to develop the activities and support available at a community garden and hub. 

• • • A support programme empowering local disabled people and individuals with long-term conditions to overcome hardship and poverty in their daily lives. 

• • • Employing an LGBTQ+ Project Manager, responsible for connecting and supporting learning disabled and autistic members of the LGBTQ+ community in Leeds. 

• • • Developing, extending and diversifying specialist support and therapeutic groups for women, girls and non-binary survivors of sexual violence and abuse. 

• • • Weekly youth clubs, group work and mentoring that support emotional process, the learning of life skills, employability and developing a sense of future. 

 

These grants add to the already incredible legacy of Jimbo’s Fund. Since 2008, the Fund has made over 700 grants, investing more than £16m in Leeds communities. But the impact of Jimi’s generosity goes even beyond this. Read more about the fund’s investment in The Old Fire Station, and the release of capital from the fund when it’s been most needed, in this article.