Surrey Coronavirus Response Fund Report

4th August 2021

Our new report has launched to share the outcomes of the financial aid delivered to the voluntary and community sector in Surrey through our Surrey Coronavirus Response Fund (SCRF). 

The SCRF launched to get emergency funding to where it was most needed, supporting charities to meet the increasing demand they were experiencing as the pandemic brought new challenges and to help them adapt and deliver their services remotely.

We were met with enormous generosity from local residents, companies and partners, and following an urgent appeal for donations, we were able to effectively distribute over £2.7 million in grants across Surrey – to support 225 organisations working on the frontline.

The report includes further statistics and outcomes from the Fund, including our grant-making by geographical area and to support critical themes of need. Information gathered through research and partnering with a range of local stakeholders, reveals the extreme challenges our county faced and where support was imperative.

We know that our SCRF was just the start of the journey and that there will be a long road to rebuild and recover our county. It is our hope that the community will come together once again in support to address the new and ongoing challenges arising across many areas of Surrey – the rise in children and young people’s mental ill-health, loneliness and isolation, and homelessness to name a few.

 

Kate Peters, Director of Grant-making at the Community Foundation for Surrey said:

“We are incredibly proud to share this report – to say a huge thank you for the resilience of the sector, and share stories from just some of the inspirational charities working tirelessly to support local people. While we celebrate what we have achieved together, we must not forget that the future of Surrey relies on what we do next. Our Surrey Community Fund is now our vehicle to ensure that longer-term sustainable recovery of the county is possible.”

 

The Surrey Community Fund will now assist charities and voluntary groups supporting local residents and communities to cope and find a long-term and sustainable pathway to recovery. The priority areas for funding will assist projects around health & wellbeing, education & training, promoting inclusion & overcoming disadvantage, and empowering communities.

 

Beccy Bowden, Chief Executive of the Community Foundation for Surrey said:

“The SCRF provided support to communities impacted by the virus at the most critical time, and we are most grateful to all of our local Donors and partners that have enabled this level of grant-making. But we know that the hard work is far from over. Many of the inequalities that already existed are now more prevalent, and new challenges have arisen that we could have never predicted. Now is the time to help us support Surrey to build back stronger.”

Find out more about how our Surrey Coronavirus Response Fund provided meaningful support to local people here!

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Launching our Impact Report

14th March 2018

Last night we launched our first Impact Report at the beautiful venue of Royal Holloway University, Egham.

This report shows the Impact we have achieved in developing philanthropy and grant making in our 12 years since establishing, which we are delighted to share with you.

Our report reveals that the Community Foundation’s work to inspire local giving has generated over £22million for the benefit of charitable projects across Surrey, since our establishment in 2005. This total figure of £22million includes funds for immediate grant making, as well as endowments, which will continue growing and providing income for the long term.

We are delighted to share that we have funded 1,446 groups and individuals over 2,748 grants across Surrey. This report highlights the impact this funding has enabled, including inspiring case studies from groups and individuals, and statistics broken down by Impact Assessment Framework theme, including Disadvantage & Exclusion, Health & Wellbeing and Education & Skills, to name a few.

Kate Peters, our Director of Grants & Impact said:

We are incredibly proud to have reached this milestone of £22million generated in resources for Surrey communities, and we feel this Impact Report shows a powerful insight into the difference our donors’ giving makes across Surrey.

Whilst we support hundreds of charities and community groups each year to the tune of £1.2million, there is still much more work to be done. Last year, we received over £1million in grant requests that we were unable to fund. This clearly shows the steep demand in funding needs across the voluntary sector.

Laura Thurlow, our Chief Executive said:

Despite our successes, there is clearly a huge amount of unmet need in the county. We are very keen to work with more Surrey individuals and businesses who are wanting to explore how they can have an impact through local philanthropy.

The evening of the launch was a huge success, and would not have been made possible without the beautiful venue of Royal Holloway’s Picture Gallery, to which the Foundation are hugely grateful to Royal Holloway, University of London.

Our sincerest thanks to Barclays, for sponsoring the publication.

We would like to all of those who joined us last night for this truly special occasion.