Why do Leicestershire and Rutland need the Community Foundation?

Leicestershire and Rutland are great places to live, but there are areas - urban and rural - where poverty affects both quality and length of life.

Life can be hard in other ways. A diagnosis of serious illness may feel unmanageable, or a baby is born with special needs, or a child may lose a parent. There are places where wildlife is declining alarmingly, or an area can’t thrive because of lack of facilities.

Across Leicestershire and Rutland, there are charities and groups, dedicated to helping people cope with and change the world – from sports and arts projects to give young people direction or older people training to get back into work, to support for life-affecting illness; from groups building a village centre, or campaigning for a playground; to environment protection.

This huge variety of work, sometimes very traditional and sometimes truly innovative, often unseen and largely unpaid, keeps our countryside, villages, towns and city not just surviving, but thriving.

The Community Foundation’s accessible, ever-growing fund gives both to big charities and to tiny community groups, enabling them to concentrate on meeting real need – whether it’s in today's headlines or not.

"Far too few people realise just how much work all the voluntary
and community groups do - often quietly and without much money - to help people. The fabric of our society would be a lot weaker without them."
Richard Everard DL, chairman, Everards Brewery