As part of our mission to continuously increase investment in Oxfordshire, we work with established or new trusts and foundations that would like to outsource part or all of their grant-making. We are also able to handle the transfer of dormant or moribund trusts.
We often work on behalf of other funding bodies and charitable trusts enabling them to support many smaller local Oxfordshire based projects. Our partnerships with organisations such as Comic Relief and the Big Lottery Fund helps them to channel vital funding into our network of local causes.
Both private trusts and foundations and national funding bodies use OCF’s local knowledge to make grants that fit their criteria and strategy, giving local voluntary and community organisations access to funding opportunities that might not otherwise have been available to them. In this way we can provide such partners with an administrative service via our grant-application and panel processes.
Many private charitable trust become dormant because they have difficulty identifying beneficiaries, or because the trustees and founders find the administration and responsibility of running a charity becoming too onerous. A dormant trust’s funds can be revitalised by being released to OCF, where they can be used to support areas of current need in Oxfordshire. This service is endorsed by the Charity Commission.
We are developing partnerships with trusts and foundations with an interest in Oxfordshire, convening them together via a series of ‘Funders’ Forum‘ events. As part of these forums we are focusing on how technology can be used to streamline the process of funding top-quality charitable organisations, for example through match-funding platform The Good Exchange.
To find out more about how we can help you manage your charitable trust, contact us.
“Modern teenagers need a voice and to feel that they are really being heard. This in turn will help nurture and shape an empathetic and compassionate society which we will all benefit from.”
“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 would never have known about many of the causes I’ve helped if the community foundation hadn’t told me about them. They are doing vital work and they need our support.”
“I am incredibly grateful to be part of OCF. The phenomenal support we’ve had has meant we can keep going; reach more vulnerable and distressed people and pay for our magical herd of horses.”
“Prosperity requires not just investment in economic capital, but also in social capital. Community foundations are playing a critical role in helping to deliver a more inclusive capitalism.”
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 alleviates multiple social problems: the need for jobs and training for disadvantaged young people; the demand for nutritious food for vulnerable people; and the danger of supplies from the food industry going to waste.
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.
