We are really pleased that Walcot Foundation received an A rating in the 2023 results for the Foundation Practice Rating initiative.

Foundation Practice Rating aims to improve practice across the grant-making sector on the key themes of acocuntability, transparency and diversity.  They have created a four level rating system (A, B, C, D) where Foundations are scored against information they provide about themselves on their public information (e.g. website, Charity Commission).  This research was carried out by Giving Evidence and over 100 Foundations were reviewed from ACF’s top 300 list using this rating system.   This is the second year of the initiative.

This year, seven Foundations achieved an A rating, which is an improvement on last year when the FPR announced its first ever set of results and awarded three A ratings. The Foundations that received an A rating vary in size and structure (Walcot Foundation, Oxfordshire Community Foundation, John Ellerman Foundation, Blagrave Trust, Wellcome Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Paul Hamlyn Foundation).

The Walcot Foundation Governor Priorities help guide the type of projects that we fund within our focus on Lambeth low-income residents. We typically review these priorities every three years.

If you would like to contribute to our current review you can do so by completing our strategy survey.  This should take no longer than 10 minutes.  

Please keep in mind that our charitable objects require that ALL our funding must be focused on Lambeth beneficiaries and 85% needs to be spent on projects which relate to education, training and employment for under-30s.

The survey will run until 20 February and the new Governor Priorities will be published on our website by July 2023.  As well as this survey and our tri-annual 'Listening to Grantees' exercise, we are running further focus groups, stakeholder interviews and undertaking desk research to inform the new strategy.  

The ongoing cost of living crisis is causing significant hardship to many Lambeth residents and local organisations are facing the twin struggle of their own rising costs coupled with increased demand for services.

In response to this, Governors of the Walcot Foundation have added an additional £300K to our annual grants budget in order to provide some assistance. 

This includes:

1. Support for Lambeth residents in crisis: £50K grant to Norwood and Brixton Foodbank to enable the four Lambeth Trussell Trust foodbanks to provide supermarket vouchers and energy top-up payments to foodbank guests.
2. Increased support to individual grantees: Current Walcot university student grants increased from £1,500 per year to £1,800 per year and all new applicants can apply for increased maximum of £1,800 (additional total cost - £60K)
3. Support to local organisations: Cost of living crisis top-up grants to local organisations with currently funded projects (£190K).  This is to help organisations (in a small way) with the increased costs over the winter.  These grants are unrestricted and do not need to be reported on.  The size of the grant is linked to the turnover of the organisation (under £50K turnover - £1.5K grant; £50K-£500K turnover - £3K grant; £500K-£1m turnover - 5K grant).

West Norwood based firm Winn & Coales (Denso) Ltd is continuing to generously support local community projects with donations totaling £45,000. 

It has made a £20,000 donation to Rathbone Youth Centre's Inspiring Learning Project.  This is the second year of a three year commitment.  As Charline King, Head of Children and Young People' Services says, "We would like to thank Winn and Coales for their long-term support.  This three year funding from Winn & Coales has been crucial in enabling us to be able to offer long-term mentoring and education support.  The three-year funding enables us to build and strengthen our relationships with the young people and their families, to be fully embedded with our community and partner schools and to provide continuous support over time to young people to make progress with their learning."

Also, in response to the cost of living crisis, Winn & Coales has made a £25,000 donation to Norwood and Brixton Foodbank.  As energy bills and food prices rise, more and more local residents are being pulled into crisis.  The Foodbank is facing significant growing need in what is likely to be a very busy winter.  This donation will enable the Foodbank to lease an electric van and hire a driver for a year so as to expand the number of home deliveries they can make to clients that find it difficult to make it to the centres.  This will be particularly beneficial to elderly and disabled clients.

The Walcot Foundation is seeking to appoint an Honorary Adviser to the Foundation’s Grants Committee. S/he will provide advice and offer comment on grant applications.  The Adviser will also provide insight on current issues locally for community groups, charities and social enterprises and how the Foundation may best support young people and families from low-income backgrounds.
 
Person Specification 

• A minimum of five years’ experience of management within a local voluntary sector context 
• Currently part of (or recently retired from) senior leadership within a community-based charity or social enterprise  
• Experience of tackling poverty through community projects in Lambeth or neighbouring inner London borough 
• Passionate about having an impact in Lambeth at a strategic and systemic level 
• The ability to read and digest reports, easily identifying key issues 
• The ability to think and contribute objectively 
• The ability to work cooperatively with others in pursuit of our shared aims 
  

 
Terms 
This is an honorary appointment and carries no pay, save reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses directly associated with the role.  The appointee will be expected to attend all meetings of the Grants Committee (5-6 meetings per year that take place on Wednesdays at 6.30pm in the Governors’ Boardroom at 125 Kennington Road, SE11 6SF). There will be occasional contact with the Director and Grants Manager outside the meetings.   
 
The post is advisory.  Governors are responsible for considering whether to act on any such advice.  The post holder will not be held responsible by the Governors or Foundation in any way for any action they (the Governors) may take or not take. 
 
The appointment is for one year initially.

How to Apply
Please email grants@walcotfoundation.org.uk with your CV and a short covering letter explaining why you are interested in this role and why you consider yourself a good fit for this role.  Also, please could you complete this Equalities Monitoring Form.

Closing Date: 10am 19 September
Interviews: Early October
First Grants Committee Meeting: 6.30pm 2 November

Please contact Daniel Chapman, Grants Manager (020 7735 1925) if you have any queries or wish to talk further about the role.

Due to the extreme weather over the next few days, we will be operating a skeleton service from the office. Staff members will still be available on the phone/by email from 9am to 5pm. We will respond to emails or telephone requests in the usual way but if you have an out of hours emergency please refer to our tenant resources page.
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The Met Office has put in place a Red warning: Extreme heat for London on Monday and Tuesday. Tenants are encouraged to follow key public health messages.

After Lucy's untimely and early death, her partner made a gift of £5000 to the Foundation in her memory. It was used to fund music therapy projects across five Lambeth nursery schools, helping children from low-income families.

"Lucy grew up on a Cheshire farm, loved the outdoors and being with animals. These factors helped her recover from a serious car accident when she was nine. Spending months in hospital wards, she learnt about the other children’s lives and became aware of her own family’s privilege. She moved to London after reading Classics at Cambridge, and lived in Lambeth in her 20s, and from 1998 until her death.

She was a housing officer on Greenwich and Lambeth estates. She completed an MSc in Social Policy & Planning at LSE and then worked at St Pancras Housing Association, now Origin HA. She had moved into housing development, and putting together Housing Corporation bids. She also worked in Ireland, laying the groundwork for Clúid, the first Irish Housing Association and the country’s first non-church social housing. By the time she left Origin, Lucy was the director of business and community development, bringing together different aspects of her interest in social change.

She retrained as a counsellor and psychotherapist. She worked with adults and& teenagers in private practice and also school counselling services. She became a counselling trainer at Re-Vision.

Lucy had a practical commitment to environmental issues, women's rights and the many other political causes she believed in. She loved being around people, valued education and had a lively interest in language, art, music, theatre. She is survived by Rasha, her partner of over 20 years."

If you wish to give money in remembrance of someone please get in touch with our Grants Manager (see contacts page).

As a Foundation, it is our privilege to support Lambeth residents studying at further/higher education and schools and organisations making a massive impact in the local community.  It is very important that our grants are provided effectively, efficiently and supportively.  To help with this, we carry out a Listening Exercise every three years to get systematic feedback from grantees on what is working well but more importantly where we can improve our systems and our service.
 
We commissioned IVAR to carry out an independent survey of our grantees. 161 responded to their survey and two focus groups were carried out.  Overall the response from grantees was very positive about the Walcot Foundation. However, there were also suggestions for improvement  (such as shortening and simplification of our grant application form) which are being taken on board and systems will be updated by end of June to take these suggestions into account.  Furthermore, grantees raised wider strategic issues and these will be fed into our strategy review which is taking place later this year.
 
For more information and the full report, please see here.

We're delighted to announce that the next Director and Clerk to the Governors will be Marcia Asare. Marcia is joining the Foundation from City & Guilds Group where her role has included setting up their Skills Development Fund, and most recently developing their Environmental, Social and Governance Strategy. She takes up her post after Easter. About the prospect of joining Walcot, Marcia said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to lead Walcot, and support Lambeth residents to continue to navigate their way through today’s pressures and constraints, in an increasingly polarized society, where barriers are continuously changing.”

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