The Westgate Fund was established in 2017 with a £125,000 donation from John Lewis, and is held and managed by Oxfordshire Community Foundation (OCF). Since then it has funded 18 different community initiatives across Oxford.
The OCF team was very sorry to hear that one of our cherished volunteers passed away this week. Sarah Hodgkinson was an influential figure for our Reciprocate responsible business group, showing local companies how they could share their time and skills with the community effectively.
Over 100 people took part in a symposium at the Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre, Worcester College yesterday to understand more about how businesses can support the community by sharing time, talent and skills – and boost staff leadership potential at the same time.
OCF will host a morning symposium to help businesses understand how to share the time, talent and skills of their employees with the charity sector. It will take place Tuesday 10th April 2018 at the Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre.
Happy New Year to all of our donors, supporters and grant applicants! As we look towards 2018, we are reflecting on what we have learnt in 2017 that will form the basis of our work going forward.
Last week’s #GivingTuesday was a global day of charitable giving, and the chance for OCF to celebrate the impact of our donors’ time, talent and treasure in improving the lives of people in Oxfordshire.
Barton and Blackbird Leys based charity Thrive develops young people to bring hope and lasting change to disadvantaged communities. Their annual Young Achievers Dinner and awards was a testament to the power of investing in young people.
During the past six months OCF’s processes, governance and business planning mechanisms have been evaluated by an independent assessor, achieving an overall Quality Accreditation score of 53 out of 55.
The report is published by The Good Exchange and investigates how technology can help the charitable sector overcome key modern-day challenges – in particular the changes to government funding and the increasing demand for the services provided by charities.
Around 50 companies have shared their passion for their local area by publishing pledges for charitable and community activities they will undertake over the coming year. The businesses are all members of OCF’s responsible business group Reciprocate.