Community Foundation: Making charitable giving count in the community

Legacy giving is a vital source of charity income in the UK, with 19,261 charities being named in wills during the last three years.
Weekend Care funded by Community FoundationWeekend Care funded by Community Foundation
Weekend Care funded by Community Foundation

Perhaps unsurprisingly the ten most popular charities to leave a legacy to in 2016 were large national charities.

However here at the Community Foundation for Calderdale, we are focused on the local picture, identifying needs and working with those who can assist us in being a catalyst for social change.

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As an accredited charitable foundation working at the heart of your local community for over 25 years, we offer two primary services: we channel funds to local frontline charities and voluntary groups meeting urgent community needs, using our in-depth community knowledge, connections, and know-how.

We also provide a professional service to individual/family and corporate donors (and their professional advisors), connecting them with local causes they care about and helping them to make a difference in their local community.

Once they have made provision for family and loved ones, many of our supporters generously include a gift for us in their Will.

These gifts vary in size and format: from small to large, and as a percentage of an Estate or a fixed sum gift. Whatever size or format, such gifts are essential to fuel for our beneficial work in the community, now and in future.

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The largest gift left to the Community Foundation in a was given by Kathline Mary Denham who gave the Foundation an incredibly generous gift of £2.5 million.

In her lifetime Mrs Denham had been an active charity worker, and thanks to her gift her great works continue today and will do in perpetuity.

A plethora of local causes have been supported by the fund set up in Mrs Denham’s name. Including a project run by the Calderdale Women’s Centre which encourages some of the most marginalised women in society who also have a wide ranging set of complex needs and who have had a poor educational experience in the past to re-engage with education.

Other projects include the expansion of day centre for older people run by Weekend Care, which aims to reduce isolation, making The Gathering Place Halifax accessible for people with mobility issues, and supporting the Carers’ Support Group at Overgate Hospice.

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To date, 317 local charities and community groups have benefited from this gift. We have been able to achieve this by ethnically investing the contribution, and making grants from the monies accrued. This method ensures the fund will be available to many more charitable organisations in Calderdale in the future.

Our full impact report is available via our website www.cffc.co.uk