Charitable Trust: Surrey Education Fund

Charitable trusts are often established to meet the needs of a particular time, place or community. Over the years, those needs can change, leaving trustees with funds that are increasingly difficult to distribute within the trust's original terms.

The Surrey Education Fund demonstrates how those charitable assets can be given a new future – preserving the spirit of the original gift while putting the money to work to meet the needs of young people today. 

Bringing historic trusts together 

In 2016, Community Foundation for Surrey worked with Surrey County Council to review a number of historic charitable trusts held by the Council. 

Many had been established for very specific purposes: providing books for children at particular schools, supporting educational visits, purchasing sporting equipment for looked-after children, or helping young people prepare for employment or training. Some had not made an award for decades. 

Rather than allowing these charitable assets to remain dormant, a number of the trusts were transferred and brought together to create the Surrey Education Fund, with an initial value of almost £400,000. 

The new Fund retained their shared commitment to education and opportunity, but created a much more flexible and effective way of achieving it. 

Today, the Fund supports disadvantaged children and young people up to the age of 25, including looked-after children, to access education and training, develop skills, build confidence, widen their horizons and raise their aspirations. 

Community Foundation for Surrey manages the Fund, providing an accessible route for applications, carrying out due diligence, administering grants and undertaking the Fund’s reporting and accounting. Since it was established, the Surrey Education Fund has awarded more than £159,456.00 in grants to support young people across Surrey.

Surrey SATRO

Responding to the challenges young people face today 

One of the benefits of bringing the original trusts together is that the Fund can respond to changing needs while remaining true to their underlying charitable intentions. 

In 2026, the Surrey Education Fund awarded £36,500 to five organisations, with a particular focus on supporting young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), or who are at risk of becoming so. 

The projects recognise that young people can face very different barriers to education and employment – and therefore need different kinds of support. 

• Surrey SATRO received £6,500 towards a Learning Support Assistant for its new workshop and education space in Guildford. The programme provides vocational and employability skills for young people struggling to engage with mainstream education, including young people with special educational needs, looked-after children and those at risk of becoming NEET.

• Pond Meadow School received £8,000 towards an innovative café van, giving students the opportunity to learn practical and employability skills in a real customer-facing environment. The experience will help young people build confidence and independence and can provide a pathway towards further education, including hospitality courses.

• The Clink Charity received £6,000 to support the new Clink Café Guildford, where young people aged 16–25 who are at risk of offending or becoming NEET can gain practical experience, training and qualifications and progress towards employment or further education.

The Amber Foundation (left) received £8,000 to support a bed space at its Farm Place centre in Ockley. For young people experiencing homelessness, having a safe and stable place to live can be the essential first step towards engaging with education, training or employment. Amber combines accommodation with personalised support to help young people build confidence, raise their aspirations and move towards greater independence.

Warehouse Christian Trust – Skillway received £8,000 to provide personalised vocational training for young people disengaged from mainstream education. Around 45 young people will benefit from practical Woodwork and Metalwork training, gaining AQA accreditations alongside skills in teamwork, resilience and confidence, with many progressing to apprenticeships, further education or other vocational routes.

A charitable purpose that evolves with the community 

There is a clear thread connecting these projects with the intentions of the people who established the original trusts.  One of those historic funds was created to help looked-after children entering employment or training. Another provided books for local schoolchildren. One originated with just £59 donated in 1927 to help a boy at Dorking County School prepare for a career. 

The circumstances have changed, but the underlying ambition has not: to give young people opportunities to learn, develop their skills and build a better future.

By transferring these historic trusts to Community Foundation for Surrey, their charitable legacy has not been lost. Instead, it has been given the flexibility to remain relevant and useful to successive generations.

Could your charitable trust have a new future? 

There are charitable trusts across Surrey whose trustees may find it increasingly difficult to distribute their funds effectively. A trust may have outdated or very restrictive purposes, relatively small assets, difficulty recruiting new trustees, or an administrative burden that has become disproportionate to the grants it can make. 

Transferring a charitable trust to Community Foundation for Surrey can offer an alternative to allowing its funds to remain dormant or simply bringing its story to an end. 

We can work with trustees and their professional advisers to explore the options available and, where appropriate and subject to the necessary regulatory requirements, transfer charitable assets to the Community Foundation. 

A transferred fund can retain a connection with the original donor, trust and charitable intentions, while benefiting from our local knowledge, grant-making expertise, due diligence, investment management and administration.

The Surrey Education Fund shows what is possible: charitable gifts made by previous generations, put to work to meet the needs of Surrey today – and for generations to come.

If you are a trustee or professional adviser responsible for a charitable trust that has become dormant, difficult to administer or difficult to distribute effectively, please contact us to discuss how we may be able to help.