John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank

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The John Cracknell Youth Enterprise Bank (JCYEB) is a micro grant scheme for young entrepreneurs and enterprising young people aged 13-21 living in Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
What are the main aims and objectives?
The main aim of the JCYEB is to promote entrepreneurship among young people and create a youth enterprise ecosystem in Hull that is independent of traditional funders. In particular, the objectives of the bank are to; increase entrepreneurial activity, help young people develop business skills and knowledge, provide access to capital to young people with innovative ideas and help young people develop a greater confidence in their own abilities.
How does the program work?

The main function of the JCYEB is to distribute a range of micro grants to young people as seen fit by the members of the bank. Beyond this function, however, the bank plays the role of facilitator within the local ecosystem adding their funds to services in order to maximise the impact of both. In particular, the activities of the bank are highly coordinated with services for young entrepreneurs provided by Hull City Council.  

Throughout the lifespan of the JCYEB, the main funding stream that they provided were grants of up to £1,000 (approx $1,200) for individuals or groups of young people who are looking to finance their business ideas. However, the organisation pivoted during the pandemic to instead finance micro businesses that were excluded from government support. Instead of returning to their original model they have continued to evolve and find ways to maximise the impact of their funds while working with other organisations to provide lifelong support to businesses who apply.  

In its current form the JCYEB provides grants through three main streams. Firstly, they are providing test market grants to young entrepreneurs who participate in the council-run “Making Changes to Careers” programme. Participants receive mentoring and go through training sessions that provide them with the basic skills to start a business and market their ideas. At the end of their training each participant has the opportunity to apply for test market grant of around £300 (approx $370) to put their business idea out into the world. This scheme illustrates the joint effort of the JCYEB and Hull City Council, whereby the council provides a service that the JCYEB is incapable of providing directly and the JCYEB provides a stream of funding that the Council could not find elsewhere.  

The JCYEB also works with local schools and businesses to provide a program called “£5 blossom”. In this scheme the bank secures £150 (approx $180) loans from around 10-13 local business partners and matches each with a local school class of roughly 30 children. Each class takes part in workshops and training sessions before coming up with a business idea of their own. They then use their £150 loan to set up a micro business with advice from their business partners. They have a period of 4-5 months to run their project before they return the loan, with 50% of the profits they make staying with the school and 50% being donated to charity.  

Since 2017 a grant stream has been available for young people in the care system. Grants typically range from £200 (approx $250) to £1000 but can be more in special circumstances. The budget for this fund is ringfenced within the bank and unlike the other finding streams is not exclusively for entrepreneurship.  

Finally, the flexible nature of the JCYEB allows it to fund one-off and atypical programs provided they receive the approval of the organisation’s internal procedures. For example, the bank was able to facilitate the creation of a 2-year post within Hull City Council that allowed a young entrepreneur to continue working 2 days a week on their business idea throughout their period of employment. The funds for this project came from a private individual who would have been unable to donate the money directly due to Council procedures. However, the council viewed the money coming from JCYEB as a grant rather than a private donation.  

What is the overall cost?
The amount of money spent by the JCYEB varies considerably from year to year depending on the projects they choose to fund. In the most recent financial year the costs amounted to approximately £21,000 (approx $26,000). However, the bank spent around £130,000 ($160,000) during the pandemic due to a greater level of need within the community. The JCYEB is funded through a combination of donations and support from Hull Council in partnership with young entrepreneurs. 
How was it implemented?

Crucially the JCYEB has never been formalised as a legitimate organization meaning that it is not registered as a charity or a community interest company. Consequently, it is not subject to the same level of regulation and legal requirements when distributing its funds. This has allowed the bank to be more flexible in who it gives money to and was instrumental in their ability to pivot towards pandemic support in 2020. On the other hands, this structure has restricted the growth of the organisation as they have been unable to employ staff members.  

The JCYEB has adopted a co-operative structure for the organisation which means each member is entitled to a single vote and to attend all meetings. They follow a streamlined process for granting funds which starts with the founder receiving grant bids which are then circulated to the decision panel before a majority vote takes places to determine the outcome of the bid.  

The youth bank is closely aligned with Hull City Council, the local Chamber of Commerce and the Young Entrepreneurs Network. Many of the members of the youth bank also work for these organisations.  

Timeline: 

2004 - Established with a donation of £10,000 (approx $12,000) 

2006 - Supported its 150th enterprising young person 

2007 - Started supporting Enterprise Week/Global Entrepreneurship Week 

2010 - Established a partnership with KCOM and received a grant of £60,000 (approx $74,000), Rolled out the idea to the East Riding  

2015 - Won Enterprising Britain Competition, Supported its 350th young person, Runner up in European Enterprise Promotion Awards, 

2016 - Established partnership with RB that enables groups of young entrepreneurs to visit South Africa, Rolled out the idea to parts of North Yorkshire,  

2017 - Supported its 400 enterprising young person. Established a new grant fund for young people in the care system who wish to develop their enterprising idea. 

2020 - Pivoted towards Covid relief for excluded businesses during the pandemic 

2023 - 850 young people supported  

What impact has been measured?

Due to lack of formal structures in place at the JCYEB they have found it difficult to track the long-term impact of their program due to having no members of staff in place to conduct research on a regular basis. Nevertheless, they have on 3 occasions conducted limited impact studies. The first of these was conducted in the early years of the organisation and found the 70% of companies that had received their grants were still trading after a year. An analysis conducted in 2017 found that over 50% of those supported were still running over a ten-year period. Finally, between 60-65% of those who received the market test grants are still running over a 6-year period.  

The JCYEB also claims to have had maintained one of the most developed youth enterprise ecosystems in the UK. They point to neighbouring ecosystems that existed in 2010 but disappeared as funding was withdrawn. By contrast the JCYEB has provided a separate source of funding the has maintained an effective ecosystem dedicated to young people with an effective strategy and plan during difficult times.

What lessons can be learned?

Policymakers cite the JCYEB’s unformalized structure as both the key to much of its success and as one of its main limitations that they have learned to accept. The flexibility provided by this model allows the youth bank to be a glue to everything else within the ecosystem when money is not available.  

The key lesson they derived from the pandemic was that they could have much greater impact by distributing smaller grants that are better targeted. This also encouraged the organisation to work on programs that would service entrepreneurs for the entire life-spans of their companies instead of handing out larger grants and providing mentoring that lasts 6 months.  

CURATED BY

Charles Cracknell

Employment and Youth Enterprise Manager
Hull City Council
United Kingdom