Summerfield Community Chest
We’re working in partnership with The Summerfield Charitable Trust to take forward a pioneering investment strategy that aims to improve the lives of thousands of people in the county.
Project Themes
We are working with local VCSE sector groups, organisations and communities to co-produce a range of investment proposals for the Trust’s Board to consider. These proposals will be focussed within 6 core themes:
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Building communities, so everyone feels they belong.
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Supporting older people to have a good quality of life.
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Developing ways of increasing participation in creativity, arts and culture.
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Building support for local families with children under the age of 5.
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Enabling communities to take action for nature and encouraging individual and collective behaviours that reduce the use of carbon.
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Developing organisational support that enables the sector to innovate and thrive.
Learning and Impact
Developing grant proposals in this way is unusual; it runs counter to traditional grant making approaches which are often wasteful of time and resource and perpetuate competition. We are working in this way in order to foster collaboration, connect resources and create new possibilities. We are learning as the project evolves and look forward to sharing this at the end of the process.
Useful links
Summerfield Charitable Trust Investment Strategy - this document contains the original strategy that was approved by the Trust's Board in 2024.
Frequently Asked Questions - this document contains some FAQs and questions that were raised during our online Question & Answer session with David Owen, Chair of the Summerfield Charitable Trust, in April 2024.
Summerfield Community Chest Impact and Learning Framework describes what we believe 'good' looks like.
The Summerfield Task Group Terms of Reference describes how Gloucestershire VCSE Alliance and other VCSE organisations will work together to develop investment proposals.
Summerfield Charitable Trust website - you can find out more about the Trust, their history and funding programmes on their website.