Working directly with their foundation, your business can select a different local, grassroots charity each year to receive your corporate donations, and build a direct relationship with them.

Heart of Bucks will work with your business to identify the local issues that your staff are most interested in, and then select a shortlist of suitable local charities where your donation will make a difference. Their expert knowledge will ensure that, each year, your generous support reaches a deserving local charity.

Heart of Bucks launched this initiative in 2023 with Thames Valley Fire, who chose Wycombe Mind as their Charity of the Year.

For more information or to discuss other ways Heart of Bucks can support your corporate giving, please get in touch by emailing giving@heartofbucks.org or call the office on 01296 330134.

Since Heart of Bucks began in 2000, the charity has awarded over £11m to local causes.

£160k grant awarded to support people experiencing poverty

Four charitable foundations have joined together to award a single grant of nearly £160,000 to support people experiencing poverty in Buckinghamshire.

The Buckinghamshire Capacity Fund will provide the local not-for-profit sector with additional resources to deliver a larger local safety net than would otherwise exist to tackle poverty and financial insecurity.

The funders (Anson Charitable Trust, Rothschild Foundation, T&S Williams Charitable Foundation and Heart of Bucks) have awarded the grant to a collaboration of five local charities (Age UK Bucks, Carers Bucks, Community Impact Bucks, Connection Support and Youth Concern) for their project ‘Charities Together: Tackling financial insecurity in Bucks’.

This collaborative project will focus on practical support for residents experiencing poverty in three towns where inequality is prevalent: Aylesbury, Wycombe and Chesham. There will be a particular focus on supporting residents who currently may not know of, be able to engage with, or trust existing services and support.

Following the award of this grant, the funders issued a joint statement saying: "As local grant-makers, we want to think global and act local. We want to make a difference by working together to tackle challenging and deeply concerning areas of focus within Buckinghamshire. We are pleased to have had the opportunity to work collaboratively to establish this larger funding opportunity for the not-for-profit sector in Buckinghamshire. Congratulations to the ‘Charities Together’ group on their successful bid, which aims to reach out to local people experiencing poverty by finding ways to identify, engage, and adapt pathways to existing services."

Alice Copping, Deputy CEO at Connection Support, on behalf of the project partners said: “As five well-established local charities, we are all too aware of the difficulties faced by people of all ages and backgrounds across Bucks. We are delighted to come together in this new initiative to increase our support to residents and to grassroots organisations who are helping people facing financial insecurity.”

Cost of living support for Bucks residents

Buckinghamshire Council has compiled an overview of the cost of living support available to residents in Buckinghamshire, including:

• Help with heating and household bills
• Help accessing or buying food
• Benefits, debt and money advice

More information can be found online at www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/cost-of-living. You can also download this PDF and share it with anyone who would benefit.