The Foundation is pleased to announce passing the fifth round of Quality Accreditation.
Over the year the Foundation has completed an audit of its policies and procedures, compiled a submission of documents for external review and participated in interviews with an independent assessor.
The assessment, which was carried out by Ideas to Impact, evaluated the ongoing practices and development of the Foundation within Core Standards on governance, finance, philanthropy, grant-making, community participation and organisational development. The programme is unique to the UK Community Foundations (UKCF) network, providing the only accreditation process internationally that is tailored to and designed by community foundations.
Tina Costello, Chief Executive of the Foundation:
“We’re delighted to have passed our fifth round of Quality Accreditation. As a Foundation we work extremely hard to ensure our governance, organisational development, philanthropy, grant-making and community participation is at a consistently high standard. We understand the needs in the West Midlands and Warwickshire region and are committed to helping the communities that live here thrive.”
The Quality Accreditation assessment has revealed that:
- The value of grant-making in the UKCF network more than doubled during the Covid-19 Pandemic
- Total community foundation endowment across the membership has grown by 30% since QA4 in 2017
- The highest average score QA5 was in the Core Standard on effective emergency response, reflecting the exceptional skill community foundations displayed in rapidly activating local philanthropy and delivering funding to support community-led responses to crisis
Rosemary Macdonald, CEO of UKCF:
“It is a mark of the commitment and diligence of our members that they have completed this rigorous accreditation process at the same time as distributing record-breaking levels of funding to their communities. The UKCF team is proud to support a network which reaches every part of the UK and whose good practice has been so clearly demonstrated throughout this process.”
John Gordon, Chair of the QA Committee:
“Being now in the fifth round of Quality Accreditation, we have seen community foundations throughout the UK raise their game and clearly demonstrate a high standard of governance, administration and financial diligence through external assessment across all ranges of team size and capacity”
Becky Nixon, Director of Ideas to Impact:
“The team of assessors has been impressed by the creativity and tenacity of community foundations and their nuanced understanding of the needs of their communities and the commitment to their local areas. This understanding and the ongoing relationships that foundations are able to build means that there is a reach into local communities that helps individual and organisations from all sectors to work together in the places that it’s really needed.”
The Quality Accreditation will last for three years until October 2024 and is an initiative designed to provide collective due diligence that confirms community foundations have the capacity to deliver grants and programmes on a national level. Additionally, it promotes excellent practice across the community foundation network to ensure that they can utilise their resources most effectively to listen, support and advocate for their communities.