A combination of new donor-advised funds, match funding and more strategic grant-making means the 2014-15 financial year was our best yet. By building on our income successes with Gift Aid and an impressive investment fund performance, we have been able to make bigger community investments than ever before.
At Oxfordshire Community Foundation, we are celebrating our most successful year yet. Highlights from our accounts for the financial year 2014-15 are:
- £2.4 million in donations and match-funding, which represents a 245% growth in income
- Our first ever million-pound named fund, the Fund for Sankalpa
- Gift Aid reclaims of £196,879 on eligible donations
- Total return gross investment performance of 14.7% on our CCLA Charities Investment Fund, which holds our Community First endowment
- £825,149 in awarded in grants to 127 community projects – an increase of more than 400% since last year
- An average grant size of £6,445 – nearly six times bigger than last year
OCF’s Chair Anna Moon comments: “Such significant growth can be attributed to a combination of factors, not least OCF’s continued success in attracting new named funds – for example the Fund for Sankalpa and the Future-Building Fund – as well as the adoption of a much more proactive grant-making strategy to enable a greater distribution from total funds held. The Trustees remain committed to an aspirational and ambitious strategy that will see OCF match the impact and community investments of community foundations in the top quartile – the ultimate benefit of which will be to improve the lives and wellbeing of many more local people throughout the county.”
The full annual accounts for 2014–15 will be published on our accounts page, along with a full list of the 127 grants made during that year.