inspiring giving spring 2015
DESCRIPTION
This is the Spring 2015 issue of Sussex Community Foundation's newsletter, Inspiring GivingTRANSCRIPT
Inspiring GIVINGSPRING 2015
News in briefSURVIVING WINTER
The fi rst Surviving Winter grants to
groups supporting older and vulnerable
people have started to go out. This year,
our campaign has raised over £16,000.
Thank you to everyone who donated to
it. With all the main political parties
talking about scrapping the winter fuel
allowance after May’s General Election,
our campaign may look a little different
next winter!
GOODBYE HELLO
We said goodbye to three tireless trustees
last year and said hello to two more.
Goodbye to Steve Manwaring, Kathy
Gore DL and John Peel OBE and hello to
Maggie Burgess and His Honour Keith
Hollis (pictured above right). We look
forward to working with them to build on
the success of our departing trustees.
NEXT GRANTS DEADLINE
Our next grants deadline is on Friday
17 April 2015, 5pm. Visit www.sussex-
giving.org.uk/apply for more informa-
tion and to apply online. Or call 01273
409440.
FRIENDS
If you want to give to Sussex but the
time isn’t right to make a larger dona-
tion, you may be interested to hear more
about our new Friends scheme which
will help to fund us to fund others. Visit
www.sussexgiving.org.uk/friends
NEWSLETTER DELIVERY
Would you prefer to get this newsletter
by email? If so, you can sign up here
www.sussexgiving.org.uk/newsletter
Good friends Dear supporter,We all need good friends – the ones who are there to support you when you need it most.Friends like Professor Hans and Mrs Marit
Rausing. We met in 2006 when they set up
our fi rst-ever named fund in order to manage
their local giving in Sussex. Their charitable
objectives are very similar to our own - to tackle
the root causes of deprivation and disadvantage
across Sussex. Their original £50,000 donation
kickstarted our grant-making and, crucially, gave
confi dence to other donors to come on board and
trust us to help them focus their own giving.
We’ve made many new friends since then and,
thanks to these friends, we have just reached
a very exciting milestone. At their fi rst Board
meeting in 2006, our trustees set themselves a
target to build a £10 million endowment fund within ten years. They knew this was ambitious
but wanted to establish a fi rm foundation to support Sussex communities well into the future.
On 31st January 2015, we reached this £10 million target, one year ahead of schedule. We are
proud of this achievement. It proves that we are good at what we do and that we can inspire our
friends to support Sussex people and communities. Sometimes, this can leave us wondering
how to pay our own bills. We don’t waste money. In fact, for every £1 we spend on fundraising,
we bring in over £50. This compares extremely favourably with the average £5.83 brought in for
every £1 spent by the top 100 charities.
We are launching our new Friends scheme to give you the opportunity to support us to support
Sussex communities in a simple but effective way. Friends of Sussex Community Foundation
make an annual gift, either £500 or £1,000. Your donations will support our day-to-day work,
bringing in new funds, running our grants programme and helping us to plan for the long-term
benefi t of Sussex people.
We will thank our Friends on our website. You’ll get our Annual Review, an invitation to our annual
public event, where you’ll meet some of the people you have helped and you’ll be able to claim
tax relief on your donation. If you sign up to give a £1,000 or more, we’ll invite you to one of our
exclusive Sussex events and thank you in our Annual Review. But more importantly than all of
that, you’ll be demonstrating your support for the local community, supporting our development
and helping us to help communities help themselves across Sussex. For more information, visit
www.sussexgiving.org.uk/friends
We’d like to publicly thank Marit & Hans Rausing for their original faith in us and all our friends
who have been inspired to follow their lead.
Kevin Richmond, Chief Executive, Sussex Community Foundation
The High Sheriff of West Sussex, Jonathan Lucas and his wife Caroline hosted a summer party
for our donors, some of the groups we fund and other supporters in the grounds of their Warnham
Park, a working deer park, last July. The weather was beautiful and guests enjoyed hog roast and
ice cream, plus Sussex beer and wine, courtesy of Horsham brewers Hepworths and Bolneys
Wine Estate. The event was made possible by CCLA Investment Management.
We held one of our regular Seeing is
Believing events, Tackling Homelessness
in West Sussex, in July. Attendees visited
homelessness charity Stonepillow in
Chichester, St Joseph’s night shelter, an
abstinence recovery house in Bognor Regis
and the Worthing Churches Homelessness
Project. Donors met volunteers, staff and
service-users and learned more about the
issues and challenges they face.
On a beautiful June evening last summer, guests gathered on the lawns
at the home of BBC TV’s Question Time presenter David Dimbleby and
his wife Belinda Giles. Our thanks go to the David and Belinda for their
hospitality and also to solicitors Rix & Kay who sponsored the event.
We met local community leaders in
Hastings in October to discuss whether
philanthropy could help
address some of the
disadvantage that affects
areas of the town. The
event was part of the
Philanthropy Fellowship
South East programme.
Local philanthropists heard the views of
the community, learned about the Big
Local North East Hastings initiative and
discussed how philanthropists can support
positive change in the town. Speakers
included Ron Bennett, Chair of the Big
Local North East Hastings (pictured here
with Mags Pawson of the Ore Centre)
which is behind a local ‘community centre
support project’ which aims to breathe
new life into four community centres via
resident-led support and activity.
EVENTS
In September, trustee Pamela Stiles and her
husband Robert opened their Brighton home
and garden, overlooking the Downs and sea,
for a reception for supporters to hear more
about our work. Alex Colville (pictured below,
centre) of William Alexander Recruitment
Services talked passionately about why their
young, growing business has always been so
keen to give locally and why they chose us to
help them.
There was a great turnout for our seminar around the needs of older people in Sussex, held in
Billingshurst Community Centre in September. There was lively debate and speakers representing
Mid Sussex Older People’s Council, Age UK West Sussex, Tillington Local Care, Rother Valley
Together and Crawley Community Transport. One of the main issues facing older people is
transport. In West Sussex, the county council spends £5 million a year on transport but only
£150,000 per year on community transport schemes, when there are 33,700 residents aged
over 80 in the county.
Our founder The Duke of Richmond hosted a wonderful ‘thank you’
dinner for donors and trustees at his Goodwood House home in October,
In partnership with Thomas Eggar LLP, we hosted a second series of
well-attended seminars for professional advisors on tax-effective giving
in Crawley, Brighton and Chichester in October. The seminars were
kindly sponsored by Thesis Asset Management.
We attended an event hosted by our
parent organisation, UK Community
Foundations, at the Stock Exchange in
London in December, attended by Rob
Wilson MP, Minister for Civil Society.
It was to celebrate the success of the
Government’s Community First match-
funding scheme which raised over £10
million across the UK. We also said a
fond farewell to UKCF Chief Executive,
Stephen Hammersley, who will be replaced
in March by Fabian French who comes to
UKFC from Marie Curie Cancer Care.
Since recently published Charity Commission
guidance, an increasing number of trusts
and charity trustees are discussing the future
with their local community foundation,
says Development Manager, Janet Ormerod
(pictured).
“Sussex Community Foundation was
approached by James Innes, Chair of the
Innes Memorial Fund, to see if it would be
possible to take over management of the
charitable trust. James had seen the guidance
on the Charity Commission website, advising
that trustees contact their local community
foundation to discuss options available.”
“The trust was originally set up by James’
grandfather to benefi t people and charities
in the Horsham District area. However, the
current trustees were fi nding it increasingly
diffi cult to manage the trust and fi nd suitable
benefi ciaries. Agreement was obtained from
the Charity Commission for the trust to close
and, with the transferred assets, the Innes
Fund at Sussex Community Foundation has
now been established. This will continue to
benefi t charitable causes in the Horsham and
West Sussex area. As an extra bonus, some
match-funding from the Government’s (now
closed) Community First programme was also
obtained, increasing the eventual value of the
fund by over 25%,” says Janet.
“We are very pleased that the Foundation
is able to perpetuate the work of the Innes
Memorial Fund and that my grandfather’s
legacy will continue to benefi t needy people in
the Horsham area,” says James Innes.
For more information about how we might be
able to assist your charitable trust, call Janet
on 01273 409 440 or visit www.sussexgiving.
org.uk/professional-advisors
CHARITABLE TRUSTS
EVENTS
Since our last newsletter, we’ve given out three rounds of
grants totalling over £600,000 to charities and community
groups across Sussex. We believe strongly that the best
sort of sustainable change comes from within communities
themselves. Good illustrations of this belief are the follow-
ing three organisations who each received grants last year.
Arun & Chichester CAB received a grant of £5,000, from two of our
funds, the Marit & Hans Rausing Fund and the Dame Elizabeth Nash
Fund. The grant will help meet the costs of a debt specialist for two days
per week, plus other costs.
Brighton Pebbles is a parent-led group for children with disabilities
and their families. They received a £1,500 grant from our Leyden
House Fund towards offi ce rental, the costs of their ‘carers’ boot camp’
sessions and some salary costs.
Sussex Community Foundation raises funds for and gives grants to smaller charities and community groups across East
Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton & Hove. We make it easy for Sussex people to give money to local causes close to
their hearts and ensure that those donations reach the people that need them. Our endowment fund enables our donors
to benefi t Sussex people for generations to come.
Sussex Community Foundation, 15 Western Road, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1RL
01273 409440 / [email protected] / www.sussexgiving.org.uk
© SUSSEX COMMUNITY FOUNDATION Inspiring Giving SPRING 2015 REGISTERED CHARITY 1113226
GRANTS NEWS
Groups are invited to apply to our newly-launched Cragwood Fund
which will give larger grants for homelessness projects in West Sussex.
The deadline for applications is 17 April 2015 and criteria is available
www.sussexgiving.org.uk/howitworks.
Other funds giving larger grants are the Open Door (again targeting
homelessness in West Sussex), the Meads Fund, which will give
grants to groups working to tackle social exclusion in Eastbourne, and
the Blagrave Fund which will give four large grants to charities and
community groups working in Brighton & Hove. Our new Fangorn Fund
will also give out its fi rst grants in 2015.
Here is pantomime regular Martyn Knight and the cast of Beauty and
the Beast at the Eastbourne Devonshire Park theatre, presenting a
cheque for £6,800 from our Cullum Family Fund to Anne Bickmore
of the abc Fund. The money paid for over 400 tickets for local
disadvantaged children and families to see the show.
Oh no, it didn’t! Oh yes, it did!
For more information about all of these, please speak to Mary or Adrian
in our friendly Grants Team on 01273 409440.
NEW FUNDS