Grassroots Giving photography competition launched for 2017

08 February 2017

Last year Skipton Building Society continued its Grassroots Giving campaign and gave away £81,500 in 163 pots of £500 to community groups, voluntary organisations and sports clubs across the UK.

The money was given to grassroots causes who really make a difference to their local communities but often struggle to access funding due to their small size. We had hundreds of applications and over 38,000 people voted for who they wanted to see receive the money.

We now want to tell the stories of our winning groups to the local press in order to showcase them within their communities - but it would take us too long to take our camera and visit every single winner. So we need your help! If you’re a budding photographer and one of our winning groups is on your doorstep, we’d love for you to take a few snaps of them in action.

So, what’s in it for you? We’ve got £200 of gift vouchers up for grabs, for the photographer whose photos we feel best captures the essence of the group they've worked with. In addition to this, all entrants may have their photos published on our national websites and social media feeds, as well in the press (accredited to you, of course). 

Last year’s fabulous winner Sarah Peet will be helping us to judge the photographs and we’re hoping to build on the success of last year’s competition by continuing to showcase our winning groups. Last year we received some incredible photographs and we were truly blown away by the standard of the images we received.

Sarah said: “Being involved with the Grassroots Giving photography competition was very rewarding as it helped promote the work being done by the Woodseats Allotment Society in Sheffield. I highly recommend that budding photographers get involved and capture the fantastic work being done by the successful groups in last year’s Grassroots Giving  programme.

“The Grassroots Giving photography project is a great platform to get involved with. It's an innovative and inspiring process for community groups. Once I found out about Grassroots I couldn't wait to be involved, the whole experience was great. I loved the diversity of the winning groups, and the chance to see the difference that the money truly made to their community projects.”

This really is a great opportunity for any budding photographers and an opportunity to support your local community.

We have winning groups near you, so please help us spread the word and do get in touch if you, or anyone you know is interested. A full list of last year’s winners appears on this website.

The closing date for entries is the 31 March 2017 and the winner will be announced on the 14 April 2017. 

Please get in contact via if you'd like to enter and we'll send you full details.

Terms and conditions

By entering this competition, photographers will be considered to have accepted all the competition’s terms and conditions and for their photos to be used by Skipton Building Society for any of its commercial or non-commercial purposes without limitation

Please submit a maximum of three photographs only per photographer

Please email the photographs separately to

Each photograph not to exceed 3mb

Please supply your name, address and contact details plus the name of the group photographed with each entry

Please ensure you attach the completed consent form of all participants in the photo agreeing to their image(s) being used by Skipton Building Society on any of its channels

Deadline for entries is March 31 2017

The decision of the judging panel is final; the panel will include last year’s photography competition winner Sarah Peet, a former newspaper editor and one representative of Skipton Building Society

The winning entry will win £200 worth of vouchers

There is no cash or other alternative to the prize offered.

No correspondence will be entered into.

Entries cannot be returned.

SBS reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal value in the event that circumstances beyond our control makes this unavoidable

The winner will be notified on or after 14 April 2017 by email or phone

The competition is not open to employees or agents of SBS and other members companies within the SBS Group, their families or any other person connected with the competition.

SBS will not be liable for any failure of receipt of entries, and takes no responsibility for any entries that are lost, delayed, illegible, corrupted, damaged, incomplete or otherwise invalid.