The Gatwick Foundation Fund will reopen on Monday 28 November to support community projects in Kent, Surrey and Sussex
After being suspended during the pandemic, The Gatwick Foundation Fund is relaunching with grants of up to £10,000 for local organisations in Kent, Surrey and Sussex that support young people, improve health and wellbeing, tackle social isolation and disadvantage or raise aspirations.
Originally launched in late 2016, Gatwick’s Foundation Fund has to date distributed £1.2 million in 236 grants, benefiting over 100,000 people across Sussex, Surrey and Kent.
Kent Community Foundation will administer the Gatwick Airport Foundation Fund for community projects in Kent and the funding for Surrey and Sussex organisations will be administered by their respective Community Foundations. The Fund will make £300,000 available each year split evenly between the three counties.
Josephine McCartney, Chief Executive, Kent Community Foundation, said, “We are delighted that the Gatwick Airport Foundation Fund is relaunching after a hiatus during the pandemic. The grant criteria purposely aligns with priority areas of need including building better communities by fighting social isolation and tackling disadvantage, enabling social mobility by raising aspirations and improving skills, improving physical and mental health and wellbeing and making a difference to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people. Applications for grants of up to £10,000 that meet the funding criteria should be submitted to us before 10 February 2022.”
Melanie Wrightson, Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Gatwick Airport said, “We feel tremendously proud to be back in a position where we can offer grants to so many worthwhile community projects across our region. The work these community groups do is invaluable to some local residents and we welcome applications from all projects that meet the wide-ranging criteria.”
The Gatwick Foundation Fund distributes the economic benefits that the airport generates among local people and communities that may not benefit directly from other economic contributions the airport brings to the region.
To apply for funding from the Gatwick Foundation Fund please visit www.kentcf.org.uk/funding/Gatwick
Before the pandemic, Migrateful a charity that helps refugees and asylum seekers on their journey to employment and promotes integration into their local communities received a grant of £3,000 from the Gatwick Foundation Fund towards the cost of running refugee and asylum seeker led cookery classes.
Migrateful explained how the funding had benefitted one asylum seeker, “Rosa from Venezuela is a chef who benefitted greatly from the training we were able to hold due to the grant from Kent Community Foundation. Rosa was an asylum seeker when she started, unable to work and passionate about food, she was eager to find somewhere she could pursue this passion, to meet other people with similar interests and share her skills with the community. After years of waiting her papers came through while she was on the training course granting her refugee status meaning she can now legally work and pursue her passion for cooking, teach classes with Migrateful and think about future career aspirations with the support of our team. She is about to start teaching her first Migrateful classes in Canterbury and Margate which she is super excited about and has also accepted a job with the International Red Cross.”
About Kent Community Foundation
Grant-maker Kent Community Foundation has been finding, funding, and supporting some of the smallest voluntary organisations in the county for over twenty years. In this time, it has distributed over £50 million to support thousands of small charities and deserving causes where a modest sum of money can make a significant impact.
They are part of a UK wide accredited network of forty-seven Community Foundations who are committed to improving the lives of local people and communities, particularly the most vulnerable, isolated, and disadvantaged by matching those who want to help, with those who need the help.
Responsible for more than ninety philanthropic funds, Kent Community Foundation is unrivalled in its knowledge of local causes and assists individuals, families, and businesses, who want to help, to establish and administer their own charitable funds.
