ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/20 Chief Executive’s Report It’s always a strange exercise, sitting down to write a review of the last financial year and our ambitions for the coming year, looking backward and forward at the same time. But it’s never felt quite as strange as it does this year. Everything before March 2020 feels like another lifetime. For this reason, we report here on some of our more recent work in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as it seemed so odd not to! Last year, with our new strategy, we detailed our aim to become a more broad-based local funder, supporting more climate change and arts projects, as well as addressing disadvantage and building strong communities. We made significant progress in both of these areas, with the Rampion Fund, Nino Fund and Brighton Rock Fund, as well as the new Crawley Cultural Fund. We also continued to develop a mixed economy of grant-making, adding very small, fast-track grants and larger, strategic grants to our main grants programme. The Argus Appeal Fund enabled us to successfully trial smaller fast-track grants. The Brighton & Hove Homelessness Fund, set up by an anonymous donor, enabled us to make a single grant towards the capital costs of the ‘No Second Night Out’ project, a hub for homelessness services in Brighton & Hove. We feel sure that this major new fund will attract support from other donors and have a significant impact on homelessness in the city. In autumn 2019, we launched Sussex Uncovered 3, which presents a range of data about Sussex, both in print and on a regularly updated sister website. This continues to guide our grant-making. The challenges we have all faced in the last six months are beyond anything we might have SUSSEX COMMUNITY FOUNDATION ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/20
imagined before. Our fund holders, donors and the Sussex public were incredibly generous and swift to respond to our appeals for support. Most of all, how our communities responded to those challenges was nothing short of inspirational, pulling together in a strategic and co-ordinated way to respond to the immediate and pressing needs of people in that first lockdown. We are proud to have played our part through the Sussex Crisis Fund, giving £2.5 million in 550 grants in just eight months. My heartfelt thanks go to our staff and trustees who worked tirelessly to get funds out to where they were needed as quickly as was humanly possible. And so to the future. The success of a community foundation is built on its ability to bring people together for a common cause. The coronavirus crisis is likely to have a dramatic impact on many people’s lives for some time to come and will make existing inequalities and disadvantage greater still. Sussex Community Foundation is needed now more than ever to bring together local philanthropists and the most impactful local charities, to address the urgent needs of our communities today and for the long term.
KEVIN RICHMOND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, SUSSEX COMMUNITY FOUNDATION NOVEMBER 2020
