The Jersey Community Foundation was established in May 2020 and awarded £2 million by the Government of Jersey from dormant bank accounts, to be distributed to local charities supporting the community throughout the pandemic.
At the time of writing, the organisation has distributed just over £830,000 since its launch, helping 21 charities in total. Of those charities, several received around £50,000 in funding – the maximum amount that can be granted from the Dormant Bank Accounts Fund to an organisation in any one year.
One of those organisations was the British Red Cross, which was granted £50,000 for its community connector project. The scheme is designed to support those who are lonely or isolated by helping them develop their own plan and identify specific goals they want to achieve over a 12-week period.
Stephen McVay, the independent living service manager for the British Red Cross, said: ‘We are delighted to receive funding from the Jersey Community Foundation to help deliver our first frontline service in Jersey. While seeking to bring a new service to the Island, we found that an emerging theme was people’s feelings of loneliness and isolation, exacerbated by – but not solely due to – the pandemic.’
He added: ‘The British Red Cross community connector programme was set up to tackle this very issue.’
The chief executive for the Jersey Community Foundation Anna Terry said that as the Island emerged from the pandemic the foundation intended to provide a grant-making platform to individual donors, charitable trusts and businesses who want to support local community and voluntary groups.
‘For some people, setting up their own charitable trust is the most obvious route to take when establishing a substantial fund for future philanthropy,’ she said. ‘However, it’s not always as easy or as flexible as you may think – the Jersey Community Foundation has the ability to establish a personal fund where the administrative burden and legal compliance is managed by us. However, importantly, the donor can remain as closely involved in the application of their funds as they wish.’
Additionally, the foundation has been allocated a further £694,134 of lottery funds to distribute to projects within sports, heritage, culture, arts and science – the application window for which will open in May.
The next deadline for submitting funding requests for grants from the Dormant Bank Accounts Fund is 18 April, and those seeking to apply should visit jerseycommunityfoundation.org/applying-for-funding/coronavirus-response-fund/.
