This special 50th-anniversary edition of Rank Ripples magazine celebrates the legacy of our founder Lord Arthur Rank.
Lord Rank was guided by his Christian faith, a belief in nurturing leadership and supporting young people to achieve their potential. We hope you enjoy reading 50 stories from people whose lives have changed because he was driven to create this Foundation.
Use the buttons below the magazine to enlarge it and flick through each page.
The Rank Foundation are elated as Pro Bono Economics launch their findings on the Time to Shine programme. Pro Bono Economics uses economics to empower the social sector, today launching a report detailing the impact on charities who take part in the Time to Shine programme.
The full report is available to read as a PDF by clicking the button below.
Key findings from the report find:
Charities which participate in Time to Shine are estimated to have, on average, 5% higher incomes after the programme compared to similar charities which do not participate – this is equivalent to an average increase of around £200,000 per year. As the cost of funding the average Time to Shine charity in 2019/20 was approximately £22,000, the programme’s benefits would outweigh the costs if it increases a charity’s annual income by just 0.5%.
With 80% of organisations having incomes less than £100,000 per year, most of the sector is working on very tight budgets. Hiring a full-time employee at the Living Wage would cost more than 18% of these charities’ annual income. This means that expanding their teams is extremely costly and out of reach for most small charities. The Rank Foundation believes that filling capacity needs in small charities allows them to focus on strategic improvements that can enhance their impact.
The Start Here programme was launched this year to create new jobs in the Sports, Voluntary, Community & Social Enterprise (VCSE) sectors in Northern Ireland. The programme will support not-for-profit organisations over the next three years by funding the salaries of new entry-level job roles. Each post will receive the Real Living Wage and there is additional funding for training and upskilling existing employees, to continue to develop their career and assist the charity sector to fully recover from the impact of the pandemic.
Demand for funding was extremely high with outstanding quality applications, demonstrating the need to invest in new roles and training across the community, voluntary and sports sectors. The Start Here programme will support 100 organisations with funding in excess of £9 million.
Kai Wooder, Director of Programmes at The Rank Foundation confirmed her delight at working across the N.I. social sector, “the Start Here Programme provides a great opportunity to bring about needs-driven changes in the sector. The Rank Foundation is delighted to be working at both a strategic and grassroots level over the next three years, investing in new roles in voluntary, community and sports organisations”.
“Staff and volunteers at The Turnaround Project are so excited about being a recipient of the Start Here grants programme. To be able to offer an entry level route into the voluntary sector will go some way to be able to recognise the untapped talent there is amongst the young people living in our communities. The three-year entry-level post funded by Start Here will allow the person we recruit to develop their leadership and technical skills through the associated programme of development and support, whilst our organisation will benefit from developing its own financial and social data management capabilities. We feel very privileged to be able to play a role in a programme that has the foresight to recruit and develop the future leaders of the voluntary sector in NI”
“WOMEN’STEC are delighted to be awarded funding from the Start Here programme. This comes at a time when we are dealing with increasing demand for our services and so to be able to offer a project officer role to someone at the beginning of their career journey who is seeking to develop their skills, knowledge, and experience in the third sector, whilst increasing our capacity to deliver, is a great opportunity for everyone involved. It is also fantastic to be able to offer a three- year post rather than a one-year post. This gives the person time to grow and develop personally and professionally with the support of our team and the programme, whilst also giving us security of a role that is important for our delivery over the next three years. We are grateful to The Rank Foundation for this opportunity and to be involved with the programme.”
“Bytes are absolutely delighted that we have been selected to be partner with The Rank Foundation to deliver Start Here. This programme will enable an individual to spend the next three years working to improve digital inclusion within Bytes and across our members and colleagues in the VCSE sector. At Bytes we will support this individual to develop their networks and leadership across the sector ensuring they experience the challenges and satisfaction of working in this fantastic sector. This investment from The Rank Foundation will ensure Bytes continues to be a source of innovation as we support organisations that work with young people to improve their digital ecosystems.”
Congratulations to all the organisations The Rank Foundation is very excited for the journey ahead over the next three years.
Photography credit: Pacemaker
On the 31st January 2022, Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey launched a £10m Employment & Skills Initiative, which will see grants awarded to organisations to cover salary costs for three years in sectors hard hit by the Covid pandemic namely the arts, heritage, creative industries, sports and voluntary and community sectors. The £10m funding can be used to attract new entrants and upskill existing staff in an effort to retain talent.
The Minister is pictured at CS Lewis Square, Belfast with some of the partners who will be delivering and supporting delivery of the scheme (L-R): Karly Greene, Director of Strategic Development & Partnerships, Arts Council; Professor Paul Moore, Director Future Screens NI, supporting the Arts Sector; Minister Deirdre Hargey; Geraldine Cooper, Lead Facilitator, The Rank Foundation, supporting both the Sports and the Voluntary & Community sectors; Dr Paul Mullan, Director NI The Heritage Fund, supporting the Heritage Sector and Antoinette McKeown, CEO, Sport NI.
The Department for Communities is providing funding to the Arts, Creative Industries, Heritage, Sports and Voluntary and Community sectors to address employment and skills deficits which have arisen, as a result of, or been exacerbated by, the COVID19 pandemic. Through key roles impacted upon by the pandemic, the aim is to enhance an individual’s job prospects and skill sets and in doing so, strengthen the organisations and sectors to aid recovery and sustainability. This is in recognition of the wider benefits these sectors bring to Northern Ireland citizens. The Department for Communities has appointed the Rank Foundation to deliver this programme to organisations specifically within the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector and the sports sector, in the form of the Start Here programme
We invite you to apply for the Start Here programme if your organisation fits the following criteria:
• Are you a not-for-profit VCSE organisation that is based within Northern Ireland?
• Can you support the employability and skills of an individual who wishes to enter into, or progress within, the VCSE sector?
• Has the type of role this individual would fulfil been affected by the pandemic?
• Will your support for this role strengthen the VCSE sector?
Applications are now closed.
We invite you to apply for the Start Here programme if your organisation fits the following criteria:
• Are you a not-for-profit Sports governing body that is based within Northern Ireland?
• Can you support the employability and skills of an individual who wishes to enter into, or progress within, the sports sector?
• Has the type of role this individual would fulfil been affected by the pandemic?
• Will your support for this role support Sport in Northern Ireland?
• Is your organisation recognised by Sports NI? Check here.
Applications are now closed.
In 2022 The Rank Foundation will be celebrating the life of our founder, Lord Rank, and the 50 years of giving in his name. In the coming weeks, we will be launching an exciting and exclusive funding opportunity open only to those organisations that are active and engaged within the RankNet community. Keep an eye out on RankNet for this golden opportunity.
This week our CEO, David Sanderson, has written a short piece on the ancestry and very early life of Lord Rank. We will be regularly sharing more of the life and legacy of Lord Rank through blog posts on RankNet, which we hope you will enjoy.
Lord Rank, J Arthur, the son of Joseph Rank, was from a family of millers in Kingston upon Hull. John Rank, his Great Grandfather, became the first miller in 1825 when he rented a windmill at Sproatly, a hamlet seven miles Northeast of Hull. As the introduction of steam power steadily increased the trade through the port of Hull, John bought his first mill in Hull in 1841, on the Holderness Road. He added a second on Southcoates Lane five years later. James Rank, his eldest son, began to assist his father in running the business.
James Rank married Mary Ann Parrott in 1851, the daughter of a prominent ship owner and captain of one of the first steam-paddled schooners. Their first son died at the age of four months but their second son, Joseph Rank (the father of J Arthur) was born in 1854 and after what some described as a ‘difficult childhood’, Joseph served his apprenticeship, working in mills in Hull and Aberdeen, and despite a quirk of fate, apparently left out of his father’s will, Joseph bought his own mill in Hull in 1875. Whilst his struggles continued, Joseph married Emily Voase in 1880, with whom they had three sons and four daughters. Joseph Arthur was their youngest son.
In 1885, Joseph Rank employed Simon Engineering in Manchester to build a six-sack roller mill (based on new technology where industrial steam powered rollers were replacing traditional wind or water driven grinding stones, and Alexandra Mill in Hull became the start of a phenomenally successful business. The construction of the Clarence Mills soon followed in order to meet the growing demand for high grade white flour. The first decade of the 20th Century marked a period of significant growth for Joseph Rank Ltd and in June 1908 the capital increased from £900,000 to £1,200,000. In 1912 a new mill opened in Birkenhead, to serve the Northwest & Ireland, and new mills followed in London and Cardiff. By 1914, Joseph Rank had five mills in Hull and the original six-sack model had become a remarkable fifty-sack operation.
During this, J Arthur Rank was born on the 22nd of December 1888 in Hull. What follows is a story of outstanding leadership, tremendous business acumen and a deep and profound faith that would shape all that he achieved, including the impact of his legacy that lives on through the work of the Rank Foundation.”
This year the Memorial Award will be dedicated to Erin Donald (1998-2020) – Erin was a remarkable young woman who won the Memorial Award in 2019 with a plan to study drug rehabilitation programmes in Russia and South Africa. In 2017 Erin was a participant on the Rank Aspire Programme based in the Brook Charity, Liverpool. Following a very successful year Erin was accepted onto a university course to study social work, a long-held ambition. Erin took her own life in May 2020. To the outside world Erin had overcome so much and had a bright future ahead but internally she was struggling and with devastating consequences.
With Erin in mind, we announced the 2021 Memorial Award to support an individual who has designed their own programme of learning around Suicide Prevention, Emotional Health and Well-Being. Therefore, we are delighted to announce that the selection committee has awarded three Memorial Awards to Martha Robbins, Amaleehah Aslam-Forrester and Laura Adams.
Martha Robbins
Martha, current Time to Shine leader at mental health charity Off The Record, will be spending a month in Japan looking at the state of Japanese mental health and suicide prevention services, within the context of the Japanese third sector, and the COVID-19 Pandemic. Martha has not only been the Fundraising Officer at Off The Record, but also spends several hours every week as a Listening Support Worker in 1:1 sessions with young people facing challenges such as depression, suicidal thoughts, self-harm and abuse- helping to give them a safe, confidential space to talk and access support. Having completed her French and Japanese BA at Cardiff University in 2020, Martha is excited to combine her linguistic and cultural knowledge with two key areas of interest in her career- the third sector, and mental health. Japan has long suffered with one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and although the decade leading up to 2020 saw this rate slowly decrease, the pandemic appears to have reversed the trend. Mental health awareness is comparatively low in Japan, and seeking out mental health support is a new concept for most people. Martha will be spending time with TELL and private counselling providers to learn more. Charities exist differently in Japan in comparison to the UK, for a variety of reasons. Power, responsibility, and public trust of NPOs in Japan is relatively low, where generally more trust is placed in the government to look after its citizens than in the West. However, non-profit organisations are growing in influence in Japan, and Martha will be going right to the source to learn more with NPO Centre Japan (Japan’s equivalent of The Charity Commission).
Amaleehah Aslam-Forrester
Amaleehah is a 2020 Time to Shine leader and is a project, fundraising, and events officer at the youth-led Bristol-based charity Integrate UK. Amaleehah facilitates creative and educational workshops for young people promoting gender and racial equality and youth activism. Amaleehah has chosen to travel to Australia and New Zealand to explore how these countries promote gender and racial equality to support the wellbeing of young women and girls from diverse and indigenous communities. Amaleehah would like to learn more about how New Zealand embraces the indigenous people of their country and learn how this approach could be adapted to support the emotional health and wellbeing of young women newly arriving in the UK. These findings could be shared with organisations in the UK with a view to future collaborative work. In Australia, Amaleehah would like to work with leading Australian gender equality organisations that work to prevent violence, sexual harassment, and honour-based abuse, to improve wellbeing for all women in Australia. Volunteering with youth-participation organisations, Amaleehah is hoping to learn how to better engage young people in youth activism and understand more about the challenges of inclusive youth work including why it is so difficult to engage young women from aboriginal communities. Amaleehah would like to use this experience to develop her skills and abilities to better support and nurture the young women with whom she works and share her knowledge with youth-led organisations in the UK charity sector.
Laura Adams
Laura, a current Time to Shine leader at Real Ideas, will be travelling to the Netherlands, America, and Canada to explore how new immersive technology can be used to support children to learn wellbeing strategies. Laura will be visiting the Games for Emotional and Mental Health Lab at Radboud University to understand more about how they are using games technology to make wellbeing accessible and appealing to children and young people. She will then be travelling to Los Angeles to visit Headspace, a fantastic meditation app, to learn more about how they use animation to ensure that their audience are engaged in the practice. Finally, Laura will be heading to Ontario to meet with Youth Mental Health Canada who are a youth-led non-profit organisation that are campaigning for more representation and a better understanding of mental health conditions. Upon returning from the trip, Laura is excited to start creating wellbeing content for the new Immersive Dome that recently opened in the Market Hall in Plymouth. This content will be aimed at young children, teaching them wellbeing techniques as a preventative mental health strategy. Laura is also hoping to use this opportunity to understand the potential application of immersive technology in mental health research as part of her Masters, and potentially Doctorate, degree.
We would like to congratulate Amaleehah, Martha and Laura on their successful applications and we will be hearing from them during and after their travels.