Meet The Funder: A Kingston Charitable Foundation Event

On Love Kingston Day, 14th of February, Kingston Charitable Foundation held a quaint ‘Meet The Funder’ event in the beautiful large meeting room, at Canbury Works Limited. Where everyone could meet and discuss with other charities/businesses who have been involved with Kingston Charitable Foundation, the Kingston Upon Thames Borough and beyond!

With our lovely hosts, Hicky Kingsbury, and Justine Belcher, and three of the wonderful Trustees, Amanda Cullen, Sam Page and Belinda Lip, we had a splendid day of celebrating the achievements made and discussing the many, many goals for the year to come.

A special, thank you, for such welcoming and generous hosting by David Randall, co-founder of Maple Works and Canbury Works, who prepared the room and created a ‘warm space’ for the event.

The Day commences

Lots of different people from different backgrounds had attended, from people working with carers, in the medical field, ordinary people wanting to reduce food waste, dance/yoga instructors, therapeutic service providers, and others.

With so many different causes all coming together in one room, it’s great to see the impact they have all made collectively. Some of the many impacts made by the individual charities in attendance have been:

• Giving out warm bedding/winter clothes/hot water bottles and more to the vulnerable in response to the fuel crisis

• More free food resources for people who cannot afford the ever rising food costs

And much, much more.

The Event

With discussing the achievements of the local charities, Hicky presented the many successful grants awarded by Kingston CF

Since February 2021, Kingston CF have granted 71+ grants, all being awarded to charitable organisations supporting Kingston residents, supporting over 20,827 local people since launch (The number having risen to 25,000 now). Each month on average, 3 grants worth £600-£750 were awarded.

In 2022 alone, 51 grants were awarded (15 of them being in December alone!). Some of the charities/organisations that were granted the grants were:

• KAB (Kingston Association for the Blind)

• RBKares

• Kingston BEATS

• Voices of Hope

• Kingston WelCare

• SEEN

• Kingston Kerala Community

• Shine Bright UK

Kingston CF will be publishing their Impact Report 2022 in April 2023, this report will be a review of all grants awarded and charitable activity over the past year.  To read this report once published, and to sign up to the Kingston CF newsletter and read more about their work, please click: here.

PARTICIPATORY GRANT-MAKING

By placing local people at the centre of grant-making, this increases the diversity of decision-makers, and allows more funding at grassroots level by giving them the power to decide who and what to fund. Anybody can join! A panel of 5 will be created to create an equal environment when making the important decisions regarding the grants available.

CATALYST GRANTS

Catalyst grants unlock potential and increase wellbeing in people by providing funds that will help them affect positive change. For example. The cost of a bicycle to be used to get to college, the cost of evening classes, therapy sessions etc.

New Partnerships

Kingston Charitable Foundation have also partnered with two new charitable organisations!

The Willow Tree Foundation

Created in September 2022 by Richard & Kelly Tyler, The Willow Tree Foundation is a Blood Cancer charitable organisation that was established to support members with psychological, emotional, practical and financial support. The conversation with Kingston CF began at the end of July 2022 about how they could support local residents living with cancer. Since then, Kingston CF created a Bespoke Restricted Fund for them, which is currently achieving their charitable goals.

The Willow Tree Foundation is currently fundraising for a Healing Sanctuary, in Surbiton. This will be for local people living with any form of cancer. Locals will be able to come and experience the very best integrative therapies, and much, much more.

Plans are also underway for a new grants programme to be launched in early 2023.  This programme will specifically support individuals and families living with blood cancer in the Kingston upon Thames Borough. Look out for that.

Learn more about Kingston CF’s partnership with The Willow Tree Foundation on their website: The Willow Tree Foundation Partnership — Kingston Charitable Foundation (kingstoncf.org.uk)

You can also learn more about The Willow Tree Foundation themselves on their website: Willowtones Choir | The Willow Tree Foundation

The Victoria Foundation

A partnership with The Victoria Foundation partnership was also presented. With their generosity, The Kingston Charitable Foundation will be able to award 5x Grants to support mobility in young people. Plans for this happen is in early 2023 also.

Learn more about them from their website: The Victoria Foundation

After the lovely presentation, we had the chance to consume the delicious treats, baked by Hicky, and network among the other guests who are passionate about continuing to support our local community.

With so many plans having been discussed, we at IQ in IT cannot wait to see it all come into fruition whilst continuing to support Kingston Charitable Foundation.

Events

KCF have a few events coming up, attend them if you can! The upcoming events are:

• AGM meeting, Monday 27th February 11.30am-12.00pm.
• Dragon Boat Challenge, Sunday, 16 July 2022

New job opportunities with KCF

With the ever expanding goals, events and generally wanting to continue helping the community, Kingston Charitable Foundation are looking to expand their team! There are 3 new opportunities, all funded by the City Bridge Trust. They are:

• Grants Manager | Kingston Charitable Foundation | | CharityJob
• Development Manager | Kingston Charitable Foundation | | CharityJob
• Marketing Manager | Kingston Charitable Foundation | | CharityJob

Closing date for all roles is 2^nd March 2023, further details are in the links above!

You can learn more about Kingston Charitable Foundation through their website and social media:

• Kingston Charitable Foundation (kingstoncf.org.uk)
• Kingston Charitable Foundation: Overview | LinkedIn
• Kingston Charitable Foundation (@Kingston_c_f) / Twitter
• Kingston Charitable Foundation | London | Facebook
• Kingston Charitable Foundation (@kingston_charitable_foundation) • Instagram photos and videos

Continue reading:

Tough Mudder 2022 – IQ in IT battle the mud for charity

Volunteering with Citizen Zoo: Rewilding and Conserving Coombe

Happy Earth Day all!