“It is so uplifting to meet so many people blessed with generous hearts and a deep sense of community.”

Donor
As part of OCF’s membership of UK Community Foundations, we must pass a rigorous Quality Accreditation assessment every three years. OCF’s most recent accreditation was awarded in October 2017 as part of QA4.
Quality Accreditation is carried out by independent assessors from Ideas to Impact, and ensures we meet common standards of governance, good financial management and proactive business planning. In our most recent evaluation, QA4, we were given the top “exemplar” rating on all but two of the assessment criteria. This provides our donors and supporters with the reassurance that we will handle funds and relationships with the utmost professionalism.
The QA4 process measures every community foundation against eleven ‘core standards’, which are summarised as follows:
To see definitions of the core standards and our scores on each one, please download the summary.
The assessment process involves interviews with each community foundation’s Chair, Chief Executive and selected members of staff, and inspection of over 200 specified documents, policies and processes integral to the organisation’s operation. The conclusions from across the community foundation network are used to document best practice and share it across the UK.
The assessor’s report praised OCF for progress made since the last assessment, QA3, in 2014, in particular in relation to our reinvigorated Board of Trustees, improved online communications, publication of needs research, and better strategic direction. Other areas of strength were OCF’s professional investment managers CCLA and Brompton; a planful approach to upcoming data protection changes; our work with The Student Consultancy and The Good Exchange; our Reciprocate responsible business group; and collaborative working with neighbouring community foundations. Areas for development were to make some of our policies more public and visible; and to seek feedback in a more formal way, such as via a customer feedback survey.
If you would like to know more about how we manage donors’ funds, please contact us.
“It is so uplifting to meet so many people blessed with generous hearts and a deep sense of community.”
“I really appreciate your work on what for my parents is such an important project. I am glad that the fund has been developing so positively and swiftly.”
“The huge satisfaction to be gained from spending one’s time in giving in your later years far outweighs any pleasures that you can possibly gain on the golf course, on the beach or on the back of the yacht in the Mediterranean sipping martinis.”
“I like to have something worthwhile to get up for each morning… I find that the larger and more strategic the gift, the more pleasure I get out of it.”
“I can’t get over it; I’m still shaking when I talk about it. It’s just incredible… I feel a bit guilty about getting so much pleasure out of giving!”
“Generosity is the best investment.”
“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
“It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place.”
“I feel passionately that so many more people could be philanthropists and are a bit afraid of it. What we need to do as Beacon Fellows is go out there and talk about it. One of the things I want to do is to share the joy that I’ve had!”
“Every act of philanthropy touches a life. Deprivation is not destiny. If you come from a disadvantaged background, you just need to be given an
opportunity.”
“It’s really important to tell the world about what you’re doing. You’ll be naturally quiet and modest, and it’s not very British, but it is very important, so put your modesty aside, tell the world what you’re doing, because they’ll be interested!”
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
The Ark T Centre is an arts project in East Oxford, and is situated in a high-risk area for Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). Ark T is an open and inclusive community, where people, art, and powerful ideas come together, using the transformative powers of creativity to change lives.
SOFEA’s mission is to enable the transformation of people’s lives, and their communities, with a major focus on young people. They enable people to fulfil their potential through work, wellbeing, study and purpose projects, providing the means of reducing the immediate effects of disadvantage by relieving food insecurity in the wider community.
Good Food Oxford supports the existing work of many organisations in and around the city working to make our food system more nourishing, less wasteful and more sustainable.