What Prosper Wakefield District does

Prosper Wakefield District is an independent grant-making charity registered in England and Wales (Charity No 226121, Company No 00489136), headquartered at The Junction in Horbury, Wakefield. The organisation traces its origins to 1851 as a church-based health collection scheme and evolved through multiple name changes — Hospital Saturday Fund, Workpeople's Saturday Fund, Wakefield and District Hospitals Contributory Scheme, Wakefield Health Scheme, and Wakefield & District Health & Community Support Ltd — before rebranding to Prosper Wakefield District in 2020 to reflect its pivot toward focused philanthropic grant-making tackling poverty and inequality. Its core product is the Small Grants Programme, offering unrestricted grants of up to £5,000 to Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) organisations with annual income under £250,000 that operate within the Wakefield district. In 2025, the programme awarded £138,000 to 40 organisations with a 77% application success rate. The organisation operates no proprietary technology platform and uses standard digital tools (WordPress, Canva, Google Analytics, email, social media). Its income is derived from historical endowment, investment returns, the sale of legacy property (Prosper House in 2024), and public-sector grants including the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which finances the Philanthropy & Partnerships Manager role. A small team of approximately 10-15 staff and trustees — led by CEO Kath Lindley and Chair Cath Longley — runs operations, with additional capacity provided through strategic partnerships with the NIHR HDRC Wakefield, Wakefield Community Foundation, Zarach, and other VCSE and business partners. Beyond direct grants, the charity runs the Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal (which has delivered beds to over 530 children), the Prosperous Together volunteering match-making campaign, and the Prosper Together Fund targeting families on the edge of poverty.

Name

Prosper Wakefield District

Legal name

Prosper Wakefield District Ltd

Website

https://prosperwakefielddistrict.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1851

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Prosper Wakefield District is an independent grant-making charity providing unrestricted grants of up to £5,000 to small VCSE organisations tackling poverty and inequality across the Wakefield district of West Yorkshire, England.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Charitable Grant-Making Services

NAICS

Grantmaking Foundations (813211), Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321), Child and Youth Services (624110)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300), Investors, Nec (6799)

akta.pro primary industry

Public Charities & Grantmaking Intermediaries (BPAGAKAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Youth Housing, Foster Care & Wraparound Support (Education-Linked) Nonprofits (BPAGADAO), Family Offices & Philanthropic Advisors (Grantmaking) (BPAGAKAD)

Keywords

• Community grant-making
• Charitable foundation
• VCSE funding
• Unrestricted small grants
• Poverty inequality support

Headquarters

HQ city

Wakefield

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Charitable Grant-Making: Prosper Wakefield District is an independent grant-making charity that distributes funds to VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise) organisations across the Wakefield district. The charity's income is derived from its long-standing history as a contributory health scheme (previously Wakefield and District Hospitals Contributory Scheme), investment income, and partnerships. The organisation has evolved from a healthcare benefits scheme to a focused grant-maker tackling poverty and inequality.
2. UK Shared Prosperity Fund: The Philanthropy & Partnerships Manager post is funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, indicating public sector grant funding as a revenue stream supporting the charity's operations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Prosper Wakefield District is an independent grant-making charity that provides unrestricted grants of up to £5,000 to VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise) organisations in the Wakefield district tackling poverty and inequality. Its core offering is the Small Grants Programme alongside strategic initiatives such as the Prosper Together Fund, the Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal, and the Prosperous Together volunteering campaign. The charity channels funds from investment income, public sector grants (UK Shared Prosperity Fund), and partnerships to support organisations improving health, wellbeing, and community connection across deprived areas of Wakefield.

Product overview

Prosper Wakefield District is an independent grant-making charity that provides unrestricted funding to VCSE (Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise) organizations across the Wakefield district. The organization operates the Small Grants Programme, offering grants of up to £5,000 to community-led organizations tackling poverty and inequality, with a focus on improving health, wellbeing, and overall fulfilment of local people. As a charity rather than a technology company, Prosper does not offer software products or platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Prosper Together Fund: A grant making programme launched in October 2022 focusing on 'Households on the Edge' - families at risk of falling into poverty.
• Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal
• Prosperous Together

Products and services

• Small Grants Programme

Quantifiable outcome

• £138,000 awarded through Small Grants Programme in 2025, supporting 40 organisations with a 77% application success rate
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

13 partnerships are on record, tiered core, supporting and strategic.

• NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) WakefieldcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Prosper is a key partner in the NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) Wakefield, a partnership between local authorities, communities and the academic sector to improve health and wellbeing through research. Conor Williams serves as HDRC Community Insight Coordinator at Prosper, leading the community insight element of the programme.
• WACCL (Wakefield Annual Charity Christmas Lunch)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025Prosper is partner and match funder (up to £30,000) for the WACCL 2025 event, a major annual festive charity event raising funds for The Wakefield Children's Charity and local organisations supporting children. Prosper previously match-funded WACCL 2024.
• Sam Teale ProductionssupportingStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Production company partnered with to create Prosper's first brand impact video showcasing the work of funded community organisations, premiered as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations.
• West Yorkshire ConferencesupportingGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2025Prosper named official Charity Partner for the inaugural West Yorkshire Conference at Pontefract Racecourse (July 2025), bringing together business leaders from across Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford, Kirklees and Calderdale.
• Wakefield Community FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Founding partner in the Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal, co-leading a campaign that has provided beds to over 530 children in the district. Joint initiative recognised with the Collaboration of the Year award at the We Are Wakefield Business Awards 2025.
• ZarachcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Specialist charity partner that sources and delivers beds to families in need across the Wakefield district as part of the Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal. Works nationwide in areas of deprivation to break cycles of poverty.
• GleedssupportingGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2024Founding partner of the Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal, providing support for the campaign to ensure no child in the district sleeps without a bed.
• Wakefield District CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Founding partner of the Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal, collaborating with Prosper and other partners to address child bed poverty in the district.
• Juice PersonnelsupportingGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2024Founding partner of the Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal, contributing to the cross-sector partnership addressing child bed poverty.
• SoluPaksupportingGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2024Founding partner of the Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal, contributing to the campaign against child bed poverty.
• Citizen CoinsupportingTechnology or Integration · 1 January 2024Platform partnered with through the Prosperous Together campaign to develop volunteering opportunities, connecting business volunteers with VCSE organisations based on need and skills.
• Leeds GATEcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Gypsy and Traveller community organisation working across West Yorkshire. Prosper awarded £19,738.76 to support a part-time Youth Worker and outreach services, expanding Leeds GATE's offer across the Wakefield district including at Heath Common.
• Rocket Science (Research consultancy)strategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022Commissioned in 2021 to deliver a research project informing Prosper's future grant-making strategy. Research identified 'Households on the Edge' as a district priority and led to the launch of the Prosper Together Fund in October 2022.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves10 records

Expansion highlights10 records

Direct peers

• Wakefield Community Foundation: Direct peer and active co-funder in the Wakefield Children's Bed Appeal. Both are community-focused grant-makers operating in the same Wakefield district, distributing funds to VCSEs tackling poverty and inequality.
• Yorkshire Community Foundation: Regional grant-making foundation covering parts of Yorkshire, distributing funds to community organisations with a similar poverty-and-inequality focus. Provides a directly comparable unrestricted-grant model at a slightly larger geographic scale.
• Tudor Trust: Independent UK grant-maker well known for offering unrestricted, multi-year grants to small community organisations. Highly comparable in unrestricted-grant philosophy and small-grantee focus, though operating at national scale.
• Heart of England Community Foundation: Regional community foundation operating a similar place-based grant-making model in the West Midlands, with unrestricted small grants, health-focused funds and cross-sector partnership campaigns. Direct functional peer to Prosper's model.
• Leeds Community Foundation: A West Yorkshire-based community grant-maker with a comparable unrestricted small-grants programme and similar focus on health, poverty and community resilience. Operates in an adjacent geography with directly comparable VCSE grant-making model.

Broad incumbents

• Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: One of the largest independent UK grant-makers, funding social change, the arts, and the environment. A broader incumbent operating with comparable unrestricted-grant principles but at materially greater scale and a national footprint.
• The National Lottery Community Fund: The UK's largest community grant-maker, distributing Lottery proceeds to VCSEs. Provides a structural comparator on grant scale, application volume and process, though operating as a mass-market distributor rather than a local-place specialist.
• Barrow Cadbury Trust: UK family-founded grant-maker focused on social justice, poverty reduction and inequality. Comparable in mission alignment (tackling structural inequality) but operates at national scale with a more policy-oriented orientation.
• Lloyds Bank Foundation: UK-wide grant-maker supporting small charities with unrestricted funding, capacity-building programmes and development support. Comparable in targeting small VCSEs with unrestricted core funding, though at national scale and via a corporate-foundation model.

Others

• Northern Powerhouse Partnership Foundation: Regional development-focused partnership with social investment and community programme elements operating across the North of England. Not a direct grant-making peer but a thematic adjacent supporting organisations in the same Northern VCSE ecosystem.

Market position

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/prosper-together-ltd

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Prosper Wakefield District