Bay Foundation
Support your Communities through the Bay Foundation
Top-down models of philanthropy and grant-making can be unwieldy and risk failing to reach directly into the communities they want to help.
National and regional funds tend to be difficult for communities to navigate, as they need to be relevant to a huge number of places and needs or focus on national priorities. They have long deadlines and waits before grants are issued with opaque decision-making processes and bureaucratic demands on applicants.
Generous individuals and businesses who want to do good in their communities may be tempted to avoid these issues by administering grants and projects directly, but inevitably find themselves replicating or inventing from scratch the very same processes that are already in place.
And in almost all these situations, grass-roots community organisations get missed out.
Why work with the Bay Foundation?
Lancaster District CVS established the Bay Foundation so that community organisations could benefit from funding programmes designed and managed locally.
It leverages over fifty years of knowledge and experience to help those with the means to support communities do so quickly and effectively.
Our reach into a network of grassroots organisations means that funding gets to the projects that really make a difference, while funds receive a full range of impact and monitoring data.
Our members are active in all parts of the Lancaster district, dealing with a wide range of social, economic and environmental issues from health, poverty and economic development to children and families, arts, sport, and natural amenities.
Founded in 1973, we’ve been working in the district’s communities for over fifty years. And we’ve been distributing grants for over twenty years, starting with Ian Galbraith’s generous legacy to the city back in 2001.
Over the last few years Lancaster District CVS has become a trusted local grant manager. Our diverse group of clients includes the Eric Wright Group, NFU Mutual, Banks Lyon Memorial Trust, and the Westminster Foundation.
We know the value of proving impact and will work with you to generate the information you require. You’ll know when projects change lives, and understand why that matters to communities.
We develop, run and evaluate our grant programmes with you at our side. Get involved with designing criteria, take part in the decision making process, and meet the people and projects making a difference.
Our management costs for this work are low and increase only for more complex grant programmes. As a charity, income generated in this way goes straight back into supporting our work in communities.
Ready to find out more?
We’d love to find out about how you’d like to improve the Lancaster district, and to tell you more about how working together to create a Bay Foundation grant programme can help grassroots community organisations. Contact our Chief Officer, Yak Patel, by email at [email protected] to arrange a meeting.
