The Last Word

Swapping beds for sleeping bags

We are one of 47 community foundations in the UK, and over 1,800 similar foundations around the world. Community foundations collaborate with private philanthropists, family trusts, businesses and the public sector to provide a permanent, flexible and growing source of local charitable funding.

Since inception in 1988, we have awarded over £35 million in support to local communities. HCF currently manages over 100 funds on behalf of individuals, families, companies and other organisations. During 2024/25 we awarded over £5.6 million in direct grant aid to charitable projects working to help the most vulnerable residents of Hertfordshire.

Why did you join the Chamber?

When I joined HCF in October 2022, I was extremely excited to secure a partnership with the Chamber and represent HCF as the Chamber’s chosen Charity Patron. As their Charity Patron, I feel HCF represents and speaks on behalf of all small local charities in the county and champions their causes and challenges, fundraising needs and exceptional support and talent. All funds raised though The Herts Chamber Fund are distributed to local causes via HCF’s Love Herts Fund.

https://www.hertscf.org.uk/give-to-your-community

How has it helped your business network?

When I joined HCF, my role was new, so being part of the Chamber and working closely with the Chamber team has been amazing and extremely beneficial in building meaningful and lasting relationships. It has enabled us to network successfully at some of the bestknown conferences and events in the county; the opportunity to present to large audiences; meet patrons and members from local companies who are either just starting to look at their CSR strategies or have one in place and want to involve their employees and support local organisations; meet other charities who haven’t heard of HCF and are now receiving grant funding and attending our training and development programmes; and finally, generate new partnerships and income. We have secured new long-term partnerships with new funds set up; new regular donations; gifts in kind; and welcomed new members to our committees.

What advice would you give someone starting out?

You need to be visible and active and commit to attending varied events and conferences and join their social media platforms too –LinkedIn is popular and the Chamber pays close attention to sharing and acknowledging attendees. Also, if there is budget try to sponsor at least one event so that you can be exclusively promoted in their marketing material. Lastly, it’s a brilliant place to meet like-minded entrepreneurs and businesses, collaborate and make friends as well as clients, but you get out of it what you put in it.

As their Charity Patron, I feel HCF represents and speaks on behalf of all small local charities in the county and champions their causes and challenges, fundraising needs and exceptional support and talent.

What support do you want from government?

As I’m in the charity sector, it would be great for charities and the Government to work better together to achieve shared social goals. Philanthropy enables generous people to choose organisations and causes that are close to their hearts, but it would be great to have the government commit to a defined strategy and policy that supports all our efforts. Stronger partnerships between us can lead to more effective policymaking, improved service delivery and greater social impact. I would absolutely love a new match-funding initiative too as the last one was many years ago, but very effective. How confident are you your organisation will grow in the next year?

Absolutely. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really tough out there for charities, but with the support of the Herts Chamber and local businesses we have built some amazing relationships who all advocate for our work and commitment to help local causes. We have also made deeper relationships with local professional advisers leading to hopefully an increase in legacy donations, new funds and for their clients to have a better understanding of charitable giving for local voluntary groups and charitable organisations. Give where you live and do it all without the burden of managing your own charitable trust or foundation.