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 / info@sussexgiving.org.uk / 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