Over £2.1 billion distributed over 50 years

This week, we are proud to celebrate 50 years of community foundations in the UK and Europe.

The first UK community foundation, Wiltshire Community Foundation, was founded in May 1975 in Swindon, England - the first of its kind in Europe. Four years later, Community Foundation for Northern Ireland was created.  A range of government support and endowment challenge grants from Charities Aid Foundation and C.S Mott Foundation enabled community foundation numbers to grow in the 1980s and 1990s.

In the last 50 years, community foundations in UKCF’s network have collectively distributed just over £2.1 billion to grassroots projects and initiatives across the UK and Jersey.

Today, there are over 850 community foundations across the UK and Europe, an integral part of the global community foundation movement that works alongside sister organisations around the world.  Place-based philanthropy has also scaled up across the world, with more than 1,800 community foundations now operating in countries throughout Africa, Asia, South America, Europe, North America and the South Pacific.

UKCF has published a new 'Celebrating 50 years' page that explores the history of community foundations in the UK and Europe, as well as a timeline showing the year each UKCF member was founded and the total it has awarded, leading up to our overall figure.

To celebrate its birthday this week, Wiltshire Community Foundation hosted a conference in Devizes to celebrate the contribution of the voluntary sector across Wiltshire and Swindon.  Guests engaged with and challenged topics ranging from organisational resilience planning to understanding and utilising local insights, connecting with peers throughout the region.