Community Foundation For Calderdale celebrates Local Charities Day with £25 million good causes landmark

The news has been announced today, Local Charities Day, with news that a massive £1 billion has been raised collectively by Community Foundations in the UK in the 35 years or so since they began helping millions of people in their communities around 35 years ago.

Steve Duncan CEO of the Community Foundation for Calderdale said: “Many people may remember that in 2015 in the immediate aftermath of the Boxing Day Floods we raised over £3 million which supported individuals, community groups and local businesses.

“However, people may not know that the team at the Community Foundation for Calderdale has been tirelessly working to make giving count locally for the past 25 years, or that in that time, we have awarded over 8,000 grants.”

For example, a recent grant of £1,600 awarded to the Women’s Centre which enabled them to tackle School Holiday Food Poverty, a grant to the Noah Ark Centre which enabled them to work with 30 local households who were in debt crisis, or a large strategic grant of £60,000 to Calderdale SmartMove to help them tackle the rising homelessness problem in Calderdale showed how people lives could be helped by CFFC, he said.

“Our work often goes under the radar but is having a huge impact locally. We research and prioritise local needs via our Vital Signs project, work with charities and community groups to identify solutions that will work locally and connect philanthropists to those causes. But importantly we measure the impact our projects have and report this back to our donors,” said Steve.

The Community Foundation for Calderdale is today highlighting the work of the charities it supports by posting case studies ever 15 minutes on its social media platforms - Twitter @CalderdaleFound and Facebook Search Community Foundation Calderdale. You can also follow their work by searching the #HatsOffTo.

Fabian French, chief executive of UK Community Foundations, said: “We understand the needs of the communities we work in and direct grants to causes that will meet that need and will make the biggest difference.”