Here is our annual review for Sussex Community Foundation’s tenth year. Much has changed and evolved in the past ten years. Austerity has started to have a real impact on the lives of people in our communities and on the charities and community groups that support them. In response, the funding landscape itself has changed – there has been an increase in new forms of funding social change; local authorities are commissioning community groups to do much more of the work that the state used to provide; and charities are working more collaboratively.  This year has seen us diversify our grant-making with new funds and new partners, such as Sussex Lund, Hastings & Rother Clinical Commissioning Group and the Shoreham Air Show Fund. Although we have achieved a great deal, there is still a long way to go. We still see a shortfall of around £400,000 a year, money we wish we had in order to fund the good, strong funding applications we have to reject. If Sussex Community Foundation is about anything, it is about bringing people together for everyone’s benefit. It is about each of us giving what we can to make our communities better for everyone. We aim to be a strong foundation for the community in Sussex, providing the funding that enables others to change people’s lives for the better. 

Click on the link below to read the Summer 2016 edition of Sussex Community Foundation newsletter, Inspiring Giving. To receive the email version of our next issue, you can sign up for it here.

Inspiring Giving Summer 2016

Click on the link below to read the Spring 2016 edition of Sussex Community Foundation newsletter, Inspiring Giving. To receive the email version of our next issue, sign up at here.

Spring 2016 Newsletter

Click here to download the HMRC-approved wording for claiming Gift Aid on a single donation. More information at the HMRC website.

Sussex Community Foundation grant-giving supports communities across Sussex, relying on the generosity of our donors to provide the funding. In this year’s annual review, we thought you might like to meet some of those donors and hear, in their own words, how they became involved with community philanthropy, what motivates them to give and what they gain from the experience. So we have interviewed some of them and helped map out their philanthropic journey. What comes across strongly from our donors’ answers is the way they all want to use their success and the luck they feel they’ve had in life to help others. Download a copy here or, if you’d like a paper copy of the review, please email here. Or you can read it online here.