The Meads Fund was set up using a legacy from a successful Eastbourne business woman when she passed away in 2012.

Sussex Community Foundation, which manages the Meads Fund, helps to build stronger, more resilient communities by addressing disadvantage and deprivation and believes that long-term change comes from within a community. The Meads Fund awards grants of up to £20,000 per year for up to three years to an organisation who most clearly demonstrates their ability to achieve this change.

“While our donor wished to remain anonymous, we worked closely with the executors of her will after she died to ensure that what she wished us to fund with her legacy was closely adhered to,” says Adrian Barrott, Grants Officer at Sussex Community Foundation. “The brief she had given was very broad but she was particularly keen on ‘groups that actively promote the inclusion of all members of the community’.”

There are no restrictions on what a charity or community group may apply for, except that the Meads Fund will not support capital projects. The Fund is open to not-for-profit organisations and charities working in Eastbourne. One Eastbourne group that received a grant from the Foundation was Eastbourne Citizens Advice, which provides free, confidential, impartial advice over a wide range of topics to help local people overcome their problems. They received funding towards the salary costs of a Volunteer Trainer and an Office Manager, who between them train, supervise and monitor the quality of advice given by over 50 volunteers who advise their clients.

The Meads Fund has its own online application form and guidelines.