100% Digital Leeds is working with Leeds Community Foundation and the city’s tech sector to increase the amount of funding and resource available to build the capacity of third sector partners and increase digital inclusion for people and communities across Leeds.
The Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund supports the development and delivery of sustainable digital inclusion interventions in Leeds. Grants of up to £10,000 are available to community organisations aimed at ensuring that individuals and communities in Leeds have the skills, support, and equipment to be active online, now and in the future. Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund 2023 is open for applications, with the application window closing on 4th July.
This year’s round was launched with a briefing webinar and the 100% Digital Leeds team is currently offering support to prospective applicants to develop their bids. To book a 30 minute consultation slot with us please contact us.
Members of the 100% Digital Leeds team will be coming together with colleagues from Leeds Community Foundation, Leeds Digital Ball Board, and the third sector, in August to form the funding panel, and the list of successful applicants is expected to be announced in September.
Funded by the proceeds from the Leeds Digital Ball
The Leeds Digital Inclusion fund was launched last year a permanent grant funding stream administered by LCF in partnership with 100% Digital Leeds and supported by the Leeds Digital Ball, an annual charity event to raise money from digital and technology companies in the city. The charity ball organisers are made up of a board of members and advisors from across the Leeds region who came together as a collective to help represent the local tech community in supporting digitally excluded communities and driving positive change. Proceeds from the 2023 Ball are yet to be announced but the amount is forecasted to be 50% higher than last year’s funding pot.
The inaugural Ball took place in 2022 and saw £60,000 raised and donated to Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund, with grants going to five community organisations. One of the successful organisations was The Highrise Project who received funding to support the embedding of digital inclusion into their existing creative skills and mentoring offer for people in Armley, including the purchase of equipment.
“I tell everyone that I am not good at technology and no one believes me until I fail to open a file they send or can’t send something from whatsapp to Facebook. I have also felt less creative since having two children and not finding the time to apply for exhibitions that would bring the opportunity to sell the drawings I make. It makes me feel like I’ve left a part of myself behind sometimes. I would definitely benefit from learning more about producing digital artwork. It would up my earning potential and help me reclaim a bit of my old pre-child me.”
Artist and learner, The Highrise Project
The Leeds tech community: investing in digital inclusion
Earlier this month partners came together to deliver a webinar as part of Digital Leaders Week, exploring how Leeds’s tech, public, and community sectors have formed a unique partnership, working together as one city to ensure that no one in Leeds is excluded from the digital world. We share how the creation of Leeds Digital Charity Ball and Leeds Digital Inclusion Fund is increasing the amount of funding and resource available third sector partners, increasing digital inclusion for people and communities across Leeds who need it the most. Representatives from Leeds Digital Ball Board, Leeds Community Foundation, and 100% Digital Leeds explain how they made it all happen. The Highrise Project share how their £10,000 grant from the 2023 Digital Inclusion Fund has helped them embed digital inclusion into their work, supporting digital inclusion for people in Armley.