Dr Jerome Booth the new Chair of UK Community Foundations visited Oxfordshire Community Foundation (OCF) this afternoon with his Chief Executive Fabian French. On his sixth day in the job, Jerome said he planned to visit all 46 Community Foundations across the UK. Having visited Cardiff and Bristol earlier in the day, Jerome was happy to return to Oxford where he gained a Masters and Doctorate in Economics and lectured for Christ Church college.
The new Chair of UK Community Foundations is a well-known economist with substantial board experience in both the charity and private sectors. He has been a supporter of the Essex Community Foundation for some years. He is Chairman of Anglia Ruskin University and chairs the Britten Sinfonia. As he told us, he has a “passion for music, community and education”. He thinks that “Community Foundations do two things wonderfully – get to the community needs and look after donors really well”.
Jerome met with the whole OCF team, and sat down with our Chief Executive, Jayne Woodley and two members of the Trustees – Glyn Benson and David Rossington. He said he is still in “listening mode” needs to “build trust, be respectful and be receptive”. As UK Community Foundations is a membership organisation, he re-iterated his aim to visit everyone!
Jerome is very interested in learning about how we interact with local organisations and how he can help develop these networks nationally, particularly with the universities. His aim is to provide value initially by helping to improve the profile of Community Foundations and developing relationships with national policy makers. He will share best practice across the foundations and will look at how we can gain economies of scale in some areas, such as software and people development.
We wish Jerome well on his trip around the UK. Read his full profile on the UK Community Foundations website.