A PARTNERSHIP between Dorset Community Foundation and new county-based charity the Arbor Vitae Foundation will see £50,000 distributed to grass roots charities, voluntary organisations and young people from the Arbor Vitae Fund.
The foundation has set up the Arbor Vitae Fund with DCF, and Operations Trustee Paul Cartwright says it will help fulfil its charitable aims of supporting education, health and arts in Dorset.
The fund will support DCF’s Neighbourhood Fund, which supports small groups with grants of up to £5,000, and the DCF Bursary, which covers up to £1,000 of course costs for young people studying vocational courses at college or sixth form college.
Paul said Arbor Vitae chose to partner with DCF because of its expertise and reputation. “We only received charitable status last December and have five trustees, so for us it’s a question of how we use our time most efficiently towards meeting our aims.
“We aim to make maybe one or two carefully selected, significant grants every year, but that might mean a lot of smaller charities and smaller grants miss out. One of the most attractive things about DCF is that it will focus on grants typically up to £5,000, so we are able to support those smaller groups – as well as our own flagship projects.”
DCF advertises its grant programmes and then assesses applications before an independent grant panel makes the grant awards. It then monitors the grants to ensure they are spent as intended before reporting back to donors.
“We don’t have the broad breadth of contacts that DCF has, so its understanding of need in Dorset is far better than ours,” said Paul. “That understanding was one of the key reasons we wanted to work with it.
“Monitoring reports are important because they are part of our due diligence, and it’s precisely the thing that we don’t have the time to do ourselves for a lot of smaller projects.”
We don’t have the broad breadth of contacts that DCF has, so its understanding of need in Dorset is far better than ours
Arbor Vitae is already making an impact in the county with the funding for Lighthouse Poole to launch a new youth theatre. It will provide drama education for young people, who will have the chance to take part in an annual stage showcase and receive access to ticket discounts, backstage tours and specialist workshops.
The charity has also invited music leaders from across Dorset to propose ways of expanding and strengthening musical opportunities for people of all ages, with an emphasis on meeting local needs and creating lasting impact.
“These are two major funding projects that meet the aims of the foundation and working with DCF is the third,” said Paul. “We are looking forward to seeing how our DCF collaboration works and if it does work, we have got an exciting future.”
DCF Director of Philanthropy Gareth Owens said the partnership will enable it to make an even bigger impact in communities. “This year we have awarded more than £200,000 to 60 small community groups through our Neighbourhood Fund but the demand was higher, so it is wonderful that Arbor Vitae is supporting us,” he said.
“The Arbor Vitae Fund will support many projects where small grants can really make a huge difference and we look forward to sharing those stories.”
Find out more about setting up a fund with DCF here and about the Arbor Vitae Foundation here.
Pictured: Arbor Vitae Foundation Operations Trustee Paul Cartwright, right, with Dorset Community Foundation Director of Philanthropy Gareth Owens
