Oxfordshire Community Foundation has continued its partnership with Oxfordshire County Council to distribute Community Capacity grants to grassroots organisations throughout the county.
2025 saw grants totalling £520,900 awarded to charitable organisations and community groups across Oxfordshire to help people live well and healthily in their communities for as long as possible. This total was a sizeable increase compared to grants awarded in 2024 where £347,000 was awarded, showing Oxfordshire County Council’s ongoing commitment to support place-based initiatives that best serve their communities.
All of the grants are supporting the Council’s Oxfordshire Way vision “to support the people of Oxfordshire to live well in their community, remaining fit and healthy for as long as possible: to build community resilience and increase independence”. The partnership between Oxfordshire Community Foundation and Oxfordshire County Council is now in its fourth year of grant-making.
A total of 38 grassroots charities from across the county received funding with grants ranging from £5,100 to £20,000.
Witney Day Care Centre received a grant of £5,750 to run a weekly exercise group for 25 elderly people. Funding will pay for the hire of suitable space at the local leisure centre and a qualified tutor to run the sessions and to support the participants. Activities are designed to enable everyone to work at their own level and gain from it, increasing wellbeing and offering valuable opportunities to engage in a group activity. The sessions end with refreshments and a chat with others in the group.
Another group to benefit from funding was Didcot Baby Monday. They received a grant of £10,000 to reduce isolation and loneliness and improve mental wellbeing for expectant and new parents. This community-led charity provides the only free and in-person antenatal support to expectant parents in the Didcot-area. Funding will help them to continue to run their regular groups for parents which provide universal access opportunities for isolated new mothers to connect with each other and build social networks within the community.
We received many good quality applications but we were not able to fund all of them. However, our Grants Team were able to signpost some of these groups who had relevant applications to our Living Essentials Fund. These applications were assessed as part of our standard grant-making process for that round and we were subsequently able to fund two further organisations.
Oxfordshire Community Foundation worked with Oxfordshire County Council to administer and distribute the grants in December 2025, made available through funding from the county council. Our expertise and understanding of the grassroots charity network in Oxfordshire enables us to reach charities supporting the most vulnerable in areas of need throughout the county.
Find out more about the grant-making services OCF can offer to statutory bodies and other funders