Income and Grant-Making Aims and Objectives
The Trust Deed contains broad charitable objects which allow the Trustees, in their discretion, to pay or apply the income and, subject to the restrictions set out below, the capital of the Trust Fund to or for the benefit of any charitable bodies, trusts, associations, institutions or organisations.
This year, the Trustees have supported 1392 appeals out of a total of 3326 applications. While the number of appeals supported has reduced since 2007 (then 1,982), the total donations in cash terms are very similar to last year’s levels (around £38m). This figure includes the make a major grant of £10m to Oxford University towards the development of the Bodleian Library. In addition to the £10m paid this year, the Trustees have committed a further £15m to the project to be paid as to £10m in 2008 and £5m in 2009. In accounting terms, these forward commitments are shown as grants awarded in the current year which gives rise to the substantially increased grants figure in the annual accounts (51.5m). More details of the grant to Oxford can be found in the ‘Grant Activity’ section of this Report. This is the first substantial grant of this level since the Trustees made grants totalling £20m to the British Museum Great Court development in 1997 and 1999 and reflects the Trustees’ commitment to making landmark grants on a periodic basis for projects of major national significance and importance.
Since the total investment income for the year (albeit showing a 10 % increase on the income for the 2007 year) was only £38.7m, the Trustees have utilised some of their expendable capital (representing profit on their investments with Rensburg Sheppards and Sarasin Chiswell over the past five years) in order to fund part of the Oxford University Grant.
The remaining grants made, as usual, support a wide range of charitable activities. Once again, (even excluding the grant to Oxford University) the largest amounts of grants in terms of value by far were in the education category, including lead grants to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth and various substantial grants to universities and specialist schools such as the Royal School for Deaf Children and Royal National College for the Blind.
For more details of the various grants made please see the ‘Grant Activity’ section of this Report.
Grant making policy
The Foundation continues to accept only appeals from UK registered charities. No applications from individuals are considered. The Trustees aim to deal with each application within four months of its being received. All applications are considered on an individual basis and, whenever it is considered necessary or desirable, visits are made by Trustees and/or the Foundation’s administrator in order to gain a better understanding of applicants’ requirements. Regular contact is maintained with recipients of grants for monitoring purposes, including follow-up visits. A copy of the grant-making guidelines, which includes the criteria which are taken into consideration when assessing applications, is available on the Foundation’s website (www.garfieldweston.org) or from the Foundation’s office on request.
The Trustees are aware of the new requirements as to public benefit and the Charity Commission’s guidance on this topic. The Trustees are satisfied that they meet the public benefit requirement by supporting a wide range of charitable activities. Although it is not up to the Trustees to ‘police’ the delivery of public benefit by the charities which they support, they have this in mind when considering applications and they also continue to support only UK registered charities.