On his bike, riding from John O'Groats to Lands End, Stratford solicitor David Lodder is taking to the road to raise money for the Foundation.

Spliting the journey into two stages, David completed his first stretch in April and plans to finish his solo adventure in September.

Speaking about his journey David said : “There are some things in life which have ‘just got to be done’; the 1,000 mile trip from John O’Groats to Lands End using your own steam is one of those things." David has set up an online donation page and hopes to raise 10K to be split between the Foundation and Mencap.

 Localgiving.com is a national website dedicated to supporting small, local

voluntary and community groups.

 Eligible groups are able to register on the site, create their own webpage

and attract online charitable donations to support their projects.

 They will also be able to claim gift aid (25%) on any donation without

being a registered Charity. (as long as the donor is eligible to claim Gift Aid)

 Throughout 2012 there will also be Match Fund Challenges both

regionally and nationally, where any donation made to your group

 through Localgiving.com gets automatically matched £1 for £1,

whilst the challenge is running . 

 Twenty two local groups took part in the national match fund in March

and matched over £17,000 between them. 

There is a regional match fund for the West Midlands in September worth over £30,000.

 To find out how Local Giving can benefit your group/organisation and to register your interest please come along to our workshop on

Thursday 21st June,  9.45 for a 10am start till 11.30 approx

At  NFU Sports & Social Club

Off Knights Lane

Stratford Upon Avon CV37 7BJ

 Refreshments will be provided

To book a place please call Sue on 024 76884432

or email localgiving@heartofenglandcf.co.uk

 Localgiving.com is a national website dedicated to supporting small, local

voluntary and community groups.

 Eligible groups are able to register on the site, create their own webpage

and attract online charitable donations to support their projects.

 They will also be able to claim gift aid (25%) on any donation without

being a registered Charity. (as long as the donor is eligible to claim Gift Aid)

 Throughout 2012 there will also be Match Fund Challenges both

regionally and nationally, where any donation made to your group

 through Localgiving.com gets automatically matched £1 for £1,

whilst the challenge is running . 

 Twenty two local groups took part in the national match fund in March

and matched over £17,000 between them. 

There is a regional match fund for the West Midlands in September worth over £30,000.

 To find out how Local Giving can benefit your group/organisation and to register your interest please come along to our workshop on

Wednesday 23rd May,  9.45 for a 10am start till 11.30 approx

At  Nuneaton Club for Young People

The Boys Club, Avenue Road

Nuneaton CV11 4NA

 Refreshments will be provided

To book a place please call Sue on 024 76884432

or email localgiving@heartofenglandcf.co.uk

 Earlsdon Street – Market stalls and pockets of entertainment. 

Earlsdon Primary School Playground – Children’s activities including tennis, martial arts, basketball, crazy races and games.                                                                                

Earlsdon Library – Children’s story telling .   

Earlsdon Methodist Church  – Refreshments, craft demonstrations and workshops, art exhibition and sale, history group display. 

Age UK Gilbert Richards Centre – Woodworking and craft demonstrations. 

Criterion Theatre – ‘May we sing’ a festival of choirs plus refreshment. 

St Barbara’s Church – Food based crafts, WI Cupcake challenge and refreshments.

 The activities start at about 1030 a.m. and will close at 3.30 p.m. 

Parking is very limited in Earlsdon, the nearest large car park is the Park and Ride at the Memorial Park – about 5 minutes walk.

Welcoming over 50 guests to the event Bishop Christopher said: “I was delighted to host an evening to celebrate the work of the Foundation and to thank many of the individuals and companies who support its remarkable work.” 

Responding HoECF Brian Holt thanked Bishop Christopher and added: “Being Chair of this excellent and local charity is a humbling experience in these austere times. 

“I recently heard the Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP speak eloquently and assertively referring to the humanity of a former Victorian Prime Minister. 

“It was very easy to agree with everything that he was saying, until a question was asked about the Big Society. What has happened to it? 

“It is with us already; came back the answer!  In our villages and towns, it has always been there and continues with the support of organisations such as the Heart of England Community Foundation!” 

Guests enjoyed canapés and wine sponsored by Rathbones investment management consultants.

Over 21 local community and voluntary groups received over £17,000 in matched donations which with the added gift aid became more than £28,500 in unrestricted funds. 

Sue Heyes, who is the Localgiving.com co-ordinator for the West Midlands Region, said; “It is great to see so many local groups benefitting from Localgiving.com and the Match Fund Challenge.  The additional benefit of getting gift aid added without being a registered charity makes such a difference to every donation received even without the Match Fund.  There are further Match Fund Challenges planned so it a good time to get involved.” 

One local group matched donations and ended up with over £4,000 from an original donation of £1,993.  Kieran Boyle from Roger Casements GAA Club said; “We were able to set up our localgiving.com webpage in under an hour and gained approval within a few days. We focused on getting the word out to our supporters about the match fund event. Once the word was out a number of supporters were easily able to sign up and donate to the club. The website was easy to use and we could track when donations were coming into our club.”

Guests from the local property industry enjoyed networking over drinks and a curry, whilst being entertained to various fundraising activities. 

Speaking about the Race Night which was sponsored by Quilter, HoECF Lisajane Gooden said: “I am delighted; the evening was a great success and raised over £3,000 for local community groups and projects.   

Recent awards made by the Foundation have included £2,000 to ESH Works, to fund a project to provide peer support for addicts in recovery, £1,000 to Kenilworth Helping Hands to take a group of adults with disabilities on holiday for a weekend and £750 to Southam Gymnastics to provide some new apparatus.

Up for grabs is a massive £375,000; made available through web-based social enterprise Local Giving. Launching on 1^st March, the match challenge offers a £1 for £1 match to donations received through www.localgiving.com for groups registered with Local Giving acrossEngland. 

Administered locally by Heart of England; 30 groups have, so far signed up to Local Giving across the West Midlands since December. The Foundation has supported these community groups in creating their own web presence and a means of collecting donations online, through the Local Giving website. 

Speaking about the match challenge, HoE, Local Giving Coordinator, Sue Heyes said: “This is a great opportunity for groups especially those which are not registered charities to double their donations and receive Gift Aid through online contributions. 

“Local Giving ran a similar match challenge in the run up to Christmas from which a number of local community groups benefited.” 

The Ups of Downs, a support group for families/carers of downs syndrome children was able to match fund donations of £580 making it worth £1,160 plus gift aid. This additional money paid for a month’s speech and language therapy for all the children who attend their sessions. 

Speaking on behalf of The Ups of Downs, Nicola Enoch said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for a small group like us to raise funds easily! 

“It has also given us the chance to reach a wider audience and is by far the quickest and most effective way of claiming gift aid.

“We’re delighted to have signed up and look forward to organising more events with the funds raised.” 

Another Christmas match success was Support Sport, a group that works with children and young people helping them to develop skills and confidence through sport.  They were able to match £1,055 making it worth £2,110 plus gift aid.  

Joe Graham from Support Sport added: “The money we raised supported projects  and increased the level of training we were able to offer to young people. 

“It also helped us to subsidies places for youngsters that cannot afford to access many sports or leadership training opportunities.” 

A not for profit organisation, Local Giving was the brain child of philanthropist Marcelle Speller OBE who featured in the last series of the channel 4 programme Secret Millionaire. Inspired to support the work of small community projects, Marcelle founded Local Giving in partnership with the Community Foundation Network in 2011. 

To find out how you can get involved with Local Giving.com email localgiving@heartofenglandcf.co.uk or call Sue on 024 76884432

The morning saw the community come together to sell home baked goods and gifts in the run up to Christmas; raising £500 to be shared between the parish church and the appeal.

Members of Long Compton Parish Church had read about the appeal in the national press and were reminded that they themselves had been isolated for several days last winter, when temperatures had plunged to -16C and this spurred them into taking action.

Speaking about the event, Suzanne Shacklock from Long Compton Parish Church said: “We thought about how dreadful it would be to face winter without indoor warmth and decided to hold a coffee morning to support the appeal.” 

Commenting, HoECF Fund Development Manager Lisajane Gooden said: “I am delighted members of the parish church in Long Compton embraced the idea of supporting the appeal and I am extremely grateful to them for their kind donation of £250.

 “It is shocking to think that in Coventry and Warwickshire in the year 2012 there are people who will experience hardship and suffering this winter though lack of heat. For some it may really be a question of survival. Funds raised through the Surviving Winter Appeal will be directed to those most in need. 

“I am very grateful to everyone who has made a donation or pledged their support already. The equation is very simple: the more money we can raise, the fewer people in Coventry and Warwickshire will experience a winter of hardship.”

The run is taking place on 15th April 2012, click here  to find out how to enter.

To set up your online sponsorship page click here.