B4 Raise unites Oxfordshire’s leading businesses and charities for social impact. Each year, businesses fundraise for ten local charities that support people from cradle to grave. OCF holds the funds and makes grants to the beneficiary organisations.

Find out more

Oxford-based construction company Beard launched a charitable foundation to support staff community initiatives and construction education projects. The foundation was set up with a £250,000 donation from the Beard family and is held and managed by Oxfordshire Community Foundation.

Find out more

This fund was set up in memory of the late Bob and Alison Michael by their adult children. The fund will focus on supporting community organisations in South Oxfordshire, where they lived.

Find out more

This fund was created using unclaimed client balances from this law firm based in Bicester and Rugby. Funds were invested and grew, and are now used to make grants to charities that are important to employees in both areas, in partnership with Heart of England Community Foundation.

David Harding is founder of Winton Capital Management, now one of the world’s largest hedge fund companies. Through their private foundation, he and his wife Claudia added a local element to their philanthropic portfolio by making a contribution to our endowment fund, which means that every quarter we receive dividend income that supports our grant making.

The Daymark Fund is an accelerator for early stage charities or social enterprises, which have the ability to scale and be replicated on a national basis. Its goal is to start locally and to then grow by attracting new funding for innovative and investable projects.

The Didcot Powerhouse Fund, set up by Didcot First through an Advisory Group to tackle inequality and deprivation within the Didcot Garden Town Area of Influence. Financial and practical help is required if the wider Didcot area is to become a more inclusive and sustainable community and this Fund, held and managed by OCF, aims to accelerate this by attracting funding from a wide range of sources.

Find out more about The Didcot Powerhouse Fund

The Fund for sankalpa invests in changemakers – people with the vision and ability to bring about systemic change, and positively shape our world for the future. By investing in known and trusted people, sankalpa avoids onerous administrative systems, ensuring funds are used to best effect.

Find out more

The Harriet Ryley Foundation was set up by her family to give people in Oxfordshire the skills to lead better lives. For many years Harriet, a huge reader, listened to school children who needed help with their reading. The fund will support literacy projects in the county delivered by grassroots charities.

This fund assists current and future High Sheriffs in raising money for charitable purposes. For the Shrieval Year 2024/25 the High Sheriff of Oxfordshire, John May OBE, will be supporting unheard young people, many of whom face a future shadowed by risks they cannot navigate alone – disengagement, social isolation, and, ultimately, involvement in crime.

Find out more

This fund was set up by longstanding OCF trustee Jane Wates OBE, who sadly passed away in 2020. The fund continues her legacy supporting young children and their families to help improve their general health and wellbeing and life outcomes.

In memory of his late mother, Oxfordshire businessman Aziz Rahman has launched The Komorun Nessa Fund. The fund will help projects that support families and friends of those experiencing mental health problems in East Oxford and beyond.

Find out more

In 2008, after a short but intense period of depression, Maggie, who was only 29 years old, took her own life. Her parents Bob and Kati and brother David set up the Maggie Evans Fund with OCF in her memory. The fund is used to help children discover interests that were Maggie’s own passions: a love of reading stories and appreciating illustrations, and the exploration of different cultures through languages and translation.

Find out more

Headquartered in Witney, specialist design and manufacturing firm Meech International established a named fund to commemorate their 100-years milestone. The Meech Centenary Trust supports young people in finding work or getting back into education in and around West Oxfordshire.

Visit the Meech website

The Midcounties Co-operative uses local community foundations in order to administer their community grant-making. Members of the Co-operative can apply to the fund on behalf of a charitable organisation or community group that is working in an area where there is a Co-operative store.

Find out more

This fund was created to support four women completing a 3,000-mile rowing challenge across the Atlantic ocean. The fund enables the group to raise funds for The Project Pt to support their Lift Youth initiative, a transformative, referral-based exercise programme which provides young people not in education, employment or training with the opportunity to explore new interests and develop a range of skills.

Find out more

This fund was created by Amanda Ponsonby MBE and her family to promote green spaces in the urban, rural or penal community for the enhancement of food production, pollination, wildlife education, mental and physical welfare and happiness.

Partners at local law firm RWK Goodman make an annual donation to an endowment fund with OCF. This enables them to make grants from the fund’s returns each year to grassroots charities introduced by OCF.

Find out more

The Step Change Fund was established in 2014, by a small group of philanthropists who wanted their donations to deliver specific objectives and to follow an agreed programme of evaluation and support. OCF was an obvious home for the Fund and the quality of the relationship has resulted in the Fund becoming a flagship for the Foundation.

Find out more

OCF’s former Chair John Taylor and his wife Julie established their fund after making a share transfer to OCF. They are now working with OCF to channel their funds to the causes that matter most to them, making an important contribution to our grant-making.

The Tim Stockdale Foundation was set up in memory of British showjumping star Tim Stockdale. Funds raised will be awarded to support and enable participation across all sports disciplines with an emphasis on emerging young talent. The family welcomes fund raising activities.

Find out more