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Once the couple had decided on the type of fund they wished to hold with us, we explained how we will work with them and local charitable good causes to achieve their goals, and the processes which County Durham Foundation goes through to ensure that their Fund is managed in accordance with the couples wishes, making sure their money goes to the people they want to help.
First of all, we helped the couple establish detailed criteria for their fund for grant-making and assessment:
· What geographic area they wished to help?
· What causes did they want to support?
· What circumstances would qualify for their support?
· What is the maximum grant they wanted to give?
· What did they not want to fund?
The couple were especially interested in helping people who have been raised
in care, education issues and families in crisis and those who simply needed
some form of welfare assistance to get them back on track. The Wright Funk
Fund was set up with the broad criteria of making grants to help keep families
together. We confirmed the arrangements with a written agreement, clearly
laying out what they could expect from us and how their money would be used.
After hearing what lengths County Durham Foundation goes through to ensure that their every wish is met, the couple started to believe they would be able to achieve their vision of helping local families in crisis and wanted to know how best their money could be used to support their cause.
The couple decided that in order to get their fund going immediately they would agree to make a further donation of £2,000, which would be used for grant making in year one. This additional amount would be classed as revenue funding and would also be eligible for Gift Aid as it is a donation to a charity. In order for us to claim this tax relief they signed a Gift Aid form, which increased the value of their donation by nearly 30% (Gift Aid can be claimed on any charitable donation as long as the donor is paying income tax to the Inland Revenue). If the couple were higher rate taxpayers, they could have claimed an additional 18% relief in their own end of year tax return. This makes giving to any charity cheaper, more cost effective and greatly improves the amount of the donation.
Once the go-ahead to set up the fund was received, we started our initial research to find potential candidates by contacting the local Social Services Departments, with whom we had strong links through another of our funds. Our past work had highlighted that there was a real need for this type of support in the County Durham area; our contacts in the local authority have mentioned that they are finding it increasingly difficult to support every case with their dwindling budget. We also have many links with voluntary sector organisations that work with people who have either been in care, with families with children in care or with disability issues.
In order to get this fund established and placed firmly in the mind of those third parties who work with potential applicants, we commissioned and paid for a consultant to undertake some research and compile a report of the findings. The research aimed to establish the issues faced by young people in care and care leavers and to find out what they are entitled to from state benefits. The consultant also researched the level of need in the community based on discussions with Social Services, Connexions, (a national service for young people leaving school, that provides advice and support on education, health and careers) and other voluntary sector organisations.
