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Our History

Our history

Our Founder and first Chairman was the late 10th Duke of Richmond and Gordon. He felt that Sussex needed a community foundation to support the smaller charities and community groups often overlooked when local people and companies thought about giving to charity. 

“It is, in my view, a scandal that there are areas in Sussex which are in the bottom 20% of national measures of social deprivation. At the same time, when local people or companies think of giving to charity they tend to think of large national bodies, because little is known about the small community groups on their doorsteps,” he said.

“Sussex Community Foundation has been set up to bridge this gap and to make it easy for local people and companies to give to local communities. The Foundation can make a significant difference to local quality of life. This is about local communities working together for the welfare of all for many years to come.”

A number of individuals, companies and trusts agreed to become founder donors and support the initial costs of setting up the Foundation in 2006. They were:

  • The American Express Foundation
  • BAA Communities Trust
  • Barclays
  • The Batty Charitable Trust
  • The Ernest Kleinwort Charitable Trust
  • The Henry Smith Charity
  • West Sussex County Council
  • 11 individual donors.

Sussex Community Foundation is now a thriving organisation with 15 members of staff. Since 2006 we have made grants worth £30m in support of 3,000 local groups and organisations. 

“This is about local communities working together for the welfare of all for years to come”

The 10th Duke of Richmond - Founder of Sussex Community Foundation

2006

2006

Sussex Community Foundation registered as a charity and launches on 31st March 2006 at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton.
Grassroots Grants programme provides a grant fund of £1.5m over three years and a match fund of £1.5m as an incentive to attract donations to endowment. Over this period the Foundation’s endowment grew to £2m and the total grants awarded grew to £2.3m.

2008-11

2012-15

2012-15

Community First endowment challenge programme provided a further incentive for endowment giving, resulting in the Foundation’s endowment increasing to £8.9m.
First Sussex Uncovered Report published.

2013

2017

2017

Rampion Wind Farm Fund created.
Mr Arthur Green leaves legacy of £2.8m to create the Arthur & Doreen Green Fund.

2018

2020

2020

The Foundation launches the Sussex Crisis Fund on 20th March to raise funds for local charities helping people cope with lock down and to covid pandemic. The first grants are given by 31st March. The Sussex Crisis Fund gave a total of £9m over two years.
Foundation launches new strategy and mission – to build a fairer more equal Sussex, and launches four new funding priorities.

2022

2023

2023

The Lawson Trust endowment match challenge launches, providing further match funding for endowment donors.

Get in touch.

We’re here to provide the support you need to make applying for our funding as easy as possible. If you have any questions about this guidance or our application process, please get in touch with our friendly grants team. You can contact us via email or by calling 01273 409 440.

Contact us
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