The Charity Commission acknowledges that Community Foundations have a reputation for the effective management of charitable funds in order to maximise their impact at local level.  The Charity Commission and The Community Foundation for Staffordshire have worked closely on several occasions in recent years to ensure that trustees seeking to revitalise dormant or ineffective trust funds, (and who are looking for an effective way of carrying on their good work in future years), can release their funds to The Community Foundation as part of their appraisal of options.

The Charity Commission welcomes and supports this initiative and encourages all charities to ask themselves whether they should work with their local Community Foundation as an alternative to continuing, particularly if they can answer yes to one or more of the following questions:

• We find it difficult to identify beneficiaries
• We cannot spend the income of the charity
• We find ourselves providing money to the same people or groups every year
• We find it difficult to attract trustees
• We would like to be involved in how the money is spent but we do not want the legal responsibility of being a trustee
• The work of administering the charity and its investment is becoming onerous or disproportionate to the level of funding
• We wish that we knew more about local issues and opportunities and who else was funding what

There are many reasons why Trustees may wish to consider transferring their assets to The Community Foundation for Staffordshire, and more information can be found here.

If you are a Trustee and would like to know more about how we can help to rejuvenate the assets of an ineffective fund, or take over the trusteeship of an active fund with a view to ensuring the objects of the fund continue to be met, whilst still providing you with the opportunity to make decisions, then please contact us.