Community Foundation creates Grant Pots for local communities

DOUBLE your money

I’m a grant maker. 

To give grants, of course, you have to generate capital.  It comes from business, government and private donors.   Sometimes it’s just lying around doing nothing!  There are millions tied up in dormant bank accounts, overlooked premium bonds and lost pensions. 

We’ve even found untapped wealth in Sleaford.

In 1909 a remarkable woman, Anne Louisa Russel Waldo-Sibthorpe left £100,000 to charity, including £4,000 for the poor brides of Sleaford.   Anne was no stranger to wedlock.  She tried it four times.  Her last marriage was to Francis a brother of Lincoln’s much lampooned, far right wing MP, Colonel Charles de Laet Waldo Sibthorp who opposed free trade, Jewish emancipation and Prince Albert (Johnny foreigner).  We owe our Steep Hill (Lincoln) railings to the Colonel, erected to discourage his dangerous horse-drawn buggy races down the 1 in 4 cobbles  

Even twenty years ago poor brides were hard to find, not because we’re all middle class, but because the superstition arose that Anne’s gift brought bad luck.

Our solution has been to unlock the trust, to bring it into an umbrella of charitable funds, one of five managed by the local Community Foundation.  We have “matched” the bequest, DOUBLING its value.  With the income we make small grants to grassroots groups.  

These archaic funds exist all over the County.  There are literally hundreds of Waldo-Sibthorpe look-alikes languishing in dusty Parish registers from the Humber to the Wash.  Left alone they achieve nothing.  Unlocked and consolidated, they can make a real difference to local communities.

The Lincolnshire Community Foundation (charity 1092328; www.lincolnshirecf.co.uk) can unlock your dormant trusts and accounts.  We fund hundreds of volunteer-led projects every year.