Northern Monk Brewery has donated a combined £10,000 to two charities as part of their Faith in Futures charitable campaign.
Two £5,000 donations have been made to each of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, who are dedicated to protecting and restoring wildlife and wild places in Yorkshire, and ANDYSMANCLUB a volunteer group aimed at supporting men’s mental health.
As part of Faith in Futures, the public were invited to vote from several charities with the Trust and ANDYSMANCLUB receiving the most votes to secure the donations.
ANDYSMANCLUB started life in 2016 when nine men met in a small room in the Yorkshire town of Halifax with a simple aim of talking through their issues and helping each other deal with their mental health. This was the start of a movement that became ANDYSMANCLUB, which now has more than 100 member groups across England, Wales and Scotland.
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is the only charity entirely dedicated to conserving, protecting and restoring wildlife and wild places in Yorkshire. The Trust is one of the UK's 46 county-based Wildlife Trusts. Its focus is on nature conservation and it works to achieve a nature-rich Yorkshire with healthy and resilient ecosystems that support both Yorkshire's wildlife and its people.
Lucas Whitehead, Marketing & Communications Champion at ANDYSMANCLUB, said: "ANDYSMANCLUB are hugely grateful for the donation made by Northern Monk. It is rewarding to know that this has been given to us following a public vote! Without the generosity of companies and organisations like Northern Monk, we wouldn't be able to continue our work to try and reduce the rate of male suicide and smash the stigma surrounding men's mental health.
“The donation will be used to ensure that our growth in new areas is able to continue, in addition to ensuring that our current cohort of groups are able to open every Monday night without fail. Whilst the majority of our venues are donated to us for free, we do pay to use a percentage of them, and donations like this safeguard our future usage of these places.
“As ANDYSMANCLUB expands in terms of clubs and volunteers on the ground, expansions to our staff team are also needed, and this donation will help support the growth of our staff team.”
Amy Warner, Fundraising Manager at Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, said, “We are delighted to receive this generous direction from Northern Monk, thank you to everyone who voted for us. Our work reaches across Yorkshire as we care for wildlife and over 100 wild places across the region from puffins which arrive every spring at Flamborough to the stunning limestone grasslands of the Dales. Generosity and donations are vital for conservation and help us do more, which inspires more people to take action for nature too.
“This donation will help our teams conserve our wild places; looking after our conservation grazing herd to restoring flowering meadows, caring for and improving our wetland reserves for wildlife and visitors. It will help us create more space and improved habitat for wildlife and inspire others to work with us and help wildlife through our events and education.”
Russ Bisset, Co-founder of Northern Monk, says: “We started Faith in Futures initially to help support charities in the North to do the vital work that they do. Whilst the cost of us brewing a pint has gone up 26% in the last 12 months, we’re committed to giving back. Everyone has felt the financial pinch this year, including us, so it’s really important to support each other where we can.
“But we’re resilient up North, and we’re really happy to able to make these two donations to two really important groups. The Wildlife Trust do amazing stuff to preserve our stunning countryside, which makes Yorkshire what it is. And ANDYSMANCLUB is doing some brilliant work in raising awareness of men’s mental health and ensuring that people have the access to the help and support they need, no matter what they’re facing. They’re a credit to Yorkshire and we’re thrilled to be able to donate to them.”
Northern Monk started life in a cellar in Bradford with a £5,000 gift from a grandparent. Inspired by these origins and an ambition to give back wherever we can, we launched the For The North Foundation in September 2019. The For The North Foundation allowed us to support the people who share our values, and our passion for the North, via £5,000 grants offered to businesses, charities and projects that aimed to provide a genuine benefit to the communities they serve, or the wider environment.
March 2021 saw the ‘For The North Foundation’ evolve into ‘Faith in Futures’. Faith in Futures has no geographical border applied to our giving. Funding for Faith in Futures is raised via exclusive product launches that are Twists on Faith, through our online shop, via sales of glassware at our Refectory sites, and by standalone fundraising events.
In 2022, we were very proud to celebrate the milestone to have donated £50,000 to charities across the UK since the creation of the Foundation, and to have supported so many businesses, especially during the extremely tough period that was the pandemic.