Help Thames Community Foundation Support Brentford

Support local charities and have a say in how the money is spent

Over the last 5 years Thames Community Foundation has made 32 grants to groups that are based in or operate exclusively in Brentford.The total value of these grants is a staggering £126,409.This is all new money brought into the community to help support civil society and local community and voluntary action.

Now the government have a new scheme, Grassroots Match Challenge that enables every pound donated to be at least doubled in value.

For example, a donor or group of donors give £20,000.With Gift Ad that is worth £25,640 and attracts a Match of £25640. The fund is worth £51,280 and will fund grants of £2560 a year. If the donor(s) pay Higher Rate Tax they can claim tax relief so that the true cost of their donation is £15,000. This means that in under 6 years their Fund will have distributed grants equal in value to their donation and will continue to do so for ever.

The donated money becomes community capital or endowment which which is eligible for the Grassroots Match Challenge to help encourage new sources of funding for community groups. The only restrictions that the Match funding brings are that the income must be spent on local projects that deal with local needs.

Community capital is where a donor gives us a sum of money which we invest and from which we only spend the income. The advantage of this approach is that the income from the money will help fund local activity for ever although the amount available each year is less at the beginning. So a donation of £20,000 that becomes community capital or endowment will support 1 grant of £1000 each year for ever.

Nigel Hay, Chief Executive says: "Our starting point at Thames is that we believe in local action by local people and want to help where we can by making cash grants..

To do this we need to identify and win over people/ companies who share our view of the importance of local and are prepared to trust us with their money.

We always want to work alongside and in partnership with our donors so we will respect entirely their wishes as to what they want to fund- children environment, arts, elderly, deprivation etc, and will if they wish leave the final funding decisions to them after we have assessed the grant applications and carried our all the necessary checks and due diligence."

Donations can be by standing order, cheque, credit card. The match only runs until 31st March 2011 so any eligible funds must be received by then. Any one who wants to do this needs to set up a fund with us- quite easy and quick to do and there is no cost. An alternative is for people to band together to create a fund – no reason why there could not be a a Brentford TW8 Fund that readers could subscribe to, with approved projects on the website and fund holders could vote on which to choose. Funds can be put together by individuals, by families, by groups and societies.

If you are want to support local charitable work and would like to more than double the value of your donation why not call Nigel Hay at Thames Community Foundation on 020 8943 6029 to find out more. If you'd like to be part of a TW8 fund, please email editor@brentfordtw8.com and we'll talk!

October 2, 2009