If you give to the Heart of England Community Foundation, your money will be used to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in Warwickshire and Coventry, now and in the future. Call Kate on 024 7688 4386 for more information.
The Government wants to encourage individuals and companies to help their local communities so the Office of the Third Sector is helping us match long-term support for small groups in Coventry and Warwickshire.
If you contribute to, or set up, a long-term fund between now and March 2011, we can give an extra £1 for every £1 you put in. For individuals, we’ll even match the Gift Aid. So, £5,000, plus 28% gift aid, plus matched funding from the government makes £12,800.
Companies get their money doubled too and can offset donations against the end-of-year tax bill. This is a very cost-effective way to meet corporate social responsibility goals.
In some cases, we can match trust donations, or even the whole value of a trust if taken over.
Many people would like to have a trust fund, often with their family name, but are put off by the cost and red tape. We are happy to establish a fund on your behalf, with cash, legacies, shares, or even gifts of property. It can be built up over time and can be time-limited or long-lasting. You choose what kind of beneficiary you want to help, and we can work with you in finding good projects, making awards, and collecting feedback. We currently hold over £250,000 for private philanthropists who want to support grassroots groups.
| Case Study: Kingscliffe The Kingscliffe fund was established by a Warwickshire benefactor. While he wanted to support projects in his locality, he didn’t want his philanthropy publicised. The name of his fund was carefully chosen to protect his anonymity. It holds over £100,000 and the earnings are regularly awarded as grants. The benefactor wants to support small projects for young people in certain areas of Rugby and South Warwickshire. We identify good prospects, do some research, and he makes the final funding decision. He gets the satisfaction of supporting community projects that make a real impact on young people, and his privacy is maintained. |
The Heart of England Community Foundation has a ‘general’ fund which pools smaller donations and which currently has over £150,000 - and it’s growing rapidly. As we only make grants from the earnings rather than the capital, it will benefit local people for tens, if not hundreds, of years to come. It is our most flexible source of community support!
When you give through the Heart of England Community Foundation, you show your company’s commitment to local causes, and you can have as little or as much help as you like in making awards. We already offer this service to local, national, and even international businesses. Some want to decide exactly who benefits from their funds, and others are happy for our independent grants panels to choose groups according to their priorities. But all of them want to support the local communities where their staff and customers live and work.
| Case Study: Orbit Heart of England The Orbit Heart of England housing group recently put an extra £50,000 into their company fund. Once the government match was added, it brought the fund’s total to £125,000. We work closely with the group’s staff to identify community projects in areas where they have housing stock. One big advantage of placing their fund with us is that we are a fully registered charity, so they get the full tax benefits. However, we can support groups which are not registered charities, but whose activities are fully charitable, which includes a lot of residents associations, who are too small to register. |
Another way to support Warwickshire projects is to contribute to the High Sheriff’s Warwickshire Fund, which matches donations to themes and areas.
We can also help companies involve their staff and customers. For example, we have run a charity day with HSBC Bank, and are happy to develop employee involvement schemes with other corporate partners.We work with financial and legal advisors, providing tailored charity services for private clients. In an increasingly crowded market, this can offer a competitive advantage. We are local, impartial, flexible and experienced both as a grant-maker, and as a service-provider for wealthy, philanthropic individuals. We can invest funds on behalf of your client, or are equally qualified to help them award the income to suitable causes.
Some of the UK’s largest charities use our services to get their grants into Coventry and Warwickshire. However, the Charity Commission has recently made it easier for us to help small trusts and charities to fulfil their aims.
They have recognised that Community Foundations are in a unique position to help struggling trusts and have empowered us to make their aims more up to date, re-work their objects, handle the administration, offer outreach services or in ultimate cases, transfer assets into a new fund held by our own charity, but with criteria which are in keeping with the original objects (if they are still valid). If desired, this can even be done whilst leaving the portfolio with the original investment agent – a ‘virtual’ transfer.
| Case Study Torrington Homes Holiday Fund found bureaucracy an increasing burden, and in their own words, the Trustees “wanted to get back to the fun bit”. They asked us to absorb their charity into our own. We did this by creating a separate ‘Torrington Fund’ within our own charity so the name lives on. We were even able to double the fund’s value through the government’s matching scheme. The former Trustees will still be involved and in time we can find new volunteers to help with the grant-making if other family members are unable to take over. |
Tax Effective Giving on Shares & Property
Companies
Giving shares makes tax sense for companies. Your company can deduct the shares’ value from your profits before corporation tax is calculated. The same applies to gifts of land or property.
Small Businesses
To benefit from corporate tax-relief on your shares or property donation, partners or the self-employed should enter details of the gift on the Income Tax Self Assessment return for the tax year in which the gift was made.
Individuals
Individuals who give shares, property or gifts of land to charity are entitled to claim back full tax relief against the value of those shares. So, a gift of shares worth £1,000 will only cost a higher rate taxpayer £600, or £780 for lower rate taxpayers, which is claimed through your Self-Assessment forms if you are self-employed, or through amending your PAYE code if you are not.