What is Worcestershire Community Foundation?
We are an independent charity and the Community Foundation for Worcestershire. We are part of a national network of 47 Community Foundations, one of the fastest growing philanthropic movements in the UK.
STOP PRESS….OUR RESPONSE TO COVID!
One year on from the start of the pandemic, we have supported Worcestershire’s communities by:
- Distributing £750,000 of funding to support 150+ community projects across the county in response to the crisis
- Distributing £240,000 of funding to support vulnerable families and individuals in the Wychavon, Worcester City and Malvern Hills areas via local community groups, schools and foodbanks
- Providing seed funding to support key local infrastructure projects including Mental Health, Digital and Youth projects
- Raising £100,000 + of local funding from generous donors and supporters which will go towards future recovery of the county
We would like to say a huge thank you to all the organisations and individuals who have helped us to support Worcestershire at this very difficult time; we are looking forward to continuing to support the voluntary and community sector during the long recovery period that lies ahead.
What we do
We are a charitable hub for the whole county – dedicated to helping to ensure that Worcestershire is a place to thrive by supporting and providing a voice for the voluntary and community sector. During the pandemic we have to date given out Covid response grants totalling over £0.9 million to more than 200 local organisations.
Who are we?
Our people are one of the most important elements of our work in Worcestershire
We are a streamlined organisation which operates in a very lean way to ensure that our overheads are kept to a minimum, enabling us to dedicate maximum resource to our grant programmes to benefit the County.
Our team comprises a voluntary board of 11 local trustees working with a part-time Development Director. We are proud to have a long-standing President Patrick Holcroft, who is the Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, and a number of well-known voluntary Patrons who support us in many ways. Many of our trustees and patrons sit on the boards of other local charities; all our team are long-term residents of Worcestershire and have in-depth knowledge and understanding of the county and its needs.
Our grant administration and back office functions are outsourced to Malvern-based organisation Community First part of the ACRE network, who are well established in supporting the voluntary and community sectors across Worcestershire and surrounding counties.
Our Impact
£ 2000000 +
Total grants
(2013-19)
£ 650000
Total grants (2020)
£ 4333
Average Grant size
150 +
Number of grants
(2020)
Feedback
New College WorcesterOur WCF grant was to support our students Mental Health & Wellbeing. The project is still on-going and is proving to be very successful. Students can easily access support and one of the key points to come out is that ‘it is good to talk’. As a result the students now have an excellent support network, which is great news.
Springfield Mind Training Lead: Paol Stuart-Thomson“I wanted to say a massive thank you for facilitating Thursday’s brilliant Royal Visit. It was excellent and such a privilege to attend. We got a huge amount out of the day and equally from the networking, which was invaluable, it seemed that everyone managed to do this prior to lunch so they seemed to scoot off quickly once HRH went for lunch. However, for us it was really great to make contacts going forward. It was a momentous day, perhaps a once in a lifetime event and just a huge thanks from all of us at Springfield Mind.”
Ruth Heywood CEO Worcester Community TrustWith hundreds of women and children supported through our domestic abuse support service DAWN each year, we are delighted to be able to offer the Survivors Network: a peer led network to build confidence, skills and offer support to families. Thank you to Worcestershire Community Foundation for making this vital work possible!
Afghanistan and Central Asian Association“Thank you once again in enabling our charity to run this project. Your support had gone a long way in meeting the needs of most vulnerable and marginalised residents in Worcestershire.”
Malvern Cube Projects“We’re very grateful for your support and used the grant to pay for extra youth worker hours to provide one-to-one support for young people who were experiencing particular issues during lockdown. Some of these were new to our service and have since joined our regular sessions. As a result of our lockdown provision, we are now going into a local secondary school to support their students with mentoring”.
Our Supporters
