DonorsFinancialNewsOCFSusie Wood and David Gaulton of Relate Oxfordshire with Jane Woodley CEO OCF

A lack of affordable housing is one of Oxfordshire’s key issues, leading in part, to the problems of homelessness locally. A gift of property, used for social good, can have much more impact as a charity donation. With their long-standing experience of stewarding funds, community foundations are well-placed to accept gifts of property and ensure it makes a genuine and lasting difference in the local area.

Gifting a property to a charity has dual benefits for the charity and for the donor. Community foundations as registered charities do not have to pay stamp duty land tax. If an individual is gifting the property, a professional adviser can best guide to the tax efficiencies of donating through a charity and the benefits of using a community foundation.

A donor can also be an existing charity client. Following a strategic review, Relate Oxfordshire moved some of their operations to their national body. This left the trustees with a decision on how best to optimise the value of a property they had owned as local offices for the past 20 years. Their priority was to ensure it continued to benefit the local community. Relate trustees established that OCF could best help them achieve this aspiration and gifted OCF the property.

Donors like Relate or individuals can gift the value of the property into a ring-fenced fund within a community foundation. This allows a donor to make the charitable gift as soon as they would like to, yet also gives them time and space to reflect on what causes they would like to support.

Properties are a major asset to a community foundation. When held as part of an endowment, they become a source of funding and support that can help local good causes in perpetuity. Alternatively, it can be given as an unrestricted gift for immediate use by the community foundation.

OCF specialises in smart giving that helps you make a genuine and lasting difference to your community. Find out more