Lower-level donors can choose causes in new community foundation

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 9 Mar 2010

A new community foundation launching today in Dorset will offer donors a new level of control over their gifts.

The Dorset Communities Fund is giving even low-level donors the opportunity to specify the kinds of activity they wish to fund, such as arts; education; health and social welfare, or environment.

High net worth individuals and local businesses will be targeted to raise the £5m the fund hopes to attract over the next five years. It begins life with £25,000 in the bank, the result of a one-off donation.

But Matthew Bowcock, chief executive of the Community Foundation Network, said the Dorset fund will be unique among community foundations in that it will also allow people to donate at lower levels, potentially as low as £30 a month. “There’s no reason why not,” he said.

The current community foundation structure, with its reliance on major donors and corporates via donor-advised funds, Bowcock said can “end up in some ways dis-incentivising people who want to get involved with their local community”.

He said with lower level gifts to the Dorset fund, donors will still have some input into what kind of activity their gift will fund, without having as much control as a donor-advised fund where donors can agree specific grants.

Bowcock, who will speak at today's launch, said that most of the money will be directed towards the foundation’s endowment, thus attracting grassroots grants matching.

He added that it should not be difficult for other community foundations to simulate such a funding structure. “There’s no difficulty at all with community foundations being able to direct funding to specific causes,” he said.

Directory: Community Foundation Network
Who's Who: Matthew Bowcock

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