The Maggie Evans Fund is a memorial fund whose chief focus is to bring the joy of reading to children from all backgrounds.
The fund encourages literacy, a love of books and a fascination for stories of all kinds. It supports a variety of projects in Oxfordshire schools, particularly in less affluent areas, working primarily with the Story Museum in Oxford.
The Maggie Evans Fund was established to celebrate a lively and clear-thinking young woman called Maggie, whose life was cut tragically short. Maggie Evans had many passions and interests, not to mention talents and abilities, but was known in her last years for her work on books, especially children’s books, and it is to this that the Fund seeks to be loyal in what it does. In a world in which many think the joy of reading books to be under threat, especially for children, this is an objective that seems ever more noble and pressing.
The fund is held and managed by Oxfordshire Community Foundation (OCF), which allows historic and new donations to be used for charitable purposes, and ensure they benefit from Gift Aid.
Donations to the fund can be made directly on their online funding page with Enthuse.
Maggie's Day
Every year the Fund holds its flagship event, ‘Maggie’s Day’, at The Story Museum, Oxford. This happy occasion brings together friends of Maggie and her family, supporters of the fund, and others interested in what it does, with a group of schoolchildren as together they all enjoy a presentation performed by a chosen author, as well as a chance to spend some time together at the Story Museum.
Over the years there have been more than ten Maggie’s Day authors (a few of them coming a second time), including Michael Rosen, Joseph Coelho, Emily Gravett, Patience Agbabi and Peter Chand. The day is meant as a treat for the children; sometimes it might be a bigger treat for the adults who come, especially as it means they have a chance to visit the Story Museum’s always exciting exhibitions.
One activity made possible by the fund is Extreme Reading Adventures, designed to help a smaller group of reluctant readers identified by schools the museum collaborates with. The children are not only given books; they come together on Sunday afternoons to experience the stories they tell, for example by taking part in a bug-handling session to go with Beetles for Breakfast, or playing quidditch to bring a Harry Potter story to life. Evaluations of this approach have been very positive indeed, and it is already being emulated elsewhere.
The fund also supports the museum’s Spellbound Schools programme. Each year, they partner with local schools to provide teachers and pupils with high‑quality creative content that supports curriculum learning and emotional wellbeing. The programme includes Days of Delight at the Museum, which feature a themed literacy session and a Wonder Walk through Oxford. Recent visits have included the Here Be Dragons exhibition, co‑curated with former children’s laureate Cressida Cowell.
The session stimulated imaginative thinking and encouraged children to invent their own stories, characters, and worlds. – Teacher, Spellbound Schools
The Maggie Evans Fund began with the generous donations made by friends, colleagues and family members following Maggie’s tragic death in 2008. Some of these have been invested in an ethical endowment fund, which generates sustainable annual returns that are used to make grants towards The Story Museum’s work. This endowment has since grown to be well over £200,000.
We also hugely welcome donations of any size to help remember Maggie, and to bring joy to children with the world of children’s books, both now and in years to come. Donations to the fund can be made directly on our online funding page with Enthuse.
Donations can also be made directly via bank transfer to OCF. Please contact the team at 01865 798 666, and we will give you our bank details.
Maggie’s legacy really is changing children’s lives through books, and that is something very special indeed. – Joseph Elliott (our visiting author in 2024)
