Proud to be Scotland’s community foundation

Our Vision

Our vision is of confident, thriving, resilient communities across Scotland. For every community to thrive, they should be resourced to support their needs and aspirations. Our purpose is to provide that support, to help communities shape their own future.

Our Values

• We are ambitious and make things happen. We roll up our sleeves, find solutions and take action.
• We never stop learning. We keep learning and sharing what works and what doesn’t.
• We do the right thing. We own our responsibilities, our decisions, and our actions.
• We create partnerships. We are inclusive, demonstrating understanding and meaningful support.
• We are open. We are transparent and we exchange thoughts and ideas.
• We act sustainably. We invest in people and planet, taking a long-term approach.

We have also created five long-term, transformational ambitions that underpin our work.

We focus on

• Ambition 1 - Grow 
  Grow a range of income, focussed on new, independent funding 
• Ambition 2 - Invest 
  Invest wisely to create a financial return and to achieve positive social impact 
• Ambition 3 - Distribute 
  Work alongside stakeholders and communities to design grant and loan programmes that are fit for purpose 
• Ambition 4 - Learn 
  Build an evidence base of how we achieve positive social impact
• Ambition 5 - Improve 
  Deliver as a team, focused on continuous learning and improvement, and on financial and environmental sustainability excellence through our people, systems, processes and our culture 

You can read more in our Strategic Plan here

Our Governance

Day to day, our work is delivered by an experienced team located across Scotland, ensuring we bring local knowledge to many of the communities we serve nationwide.

We all report to our Board of Trustees. They are responsible for governing the Foundation, developing and approving our Strategic Ambitions and guiding decisions making, ultimately all areas that serve to ensure we grow effectively, efficiently and with social impact.

We delegate some of the specialist governance and development work from the Board to committees and working groups. For example, we have committees covering general finance, financial investment, and risk and social impact. Members of our Board and our committees bring a wealth of experience to the work that we do and have a considerable influence on our ongoing development.

To see the faces behind the Foundation, please visit Our People

How we’re funded

Like any charity, we need to cover our operating costs to carry out our work. Our main expenses are our team and equipping them to do their job effectively, with things like IT equipment and meeting spaces. We also spend some money promoting our work, and the positive impact achieved by those we fund.

The main income we receive each year comes from donations. Every time we distribute charitable grants or manage programmes, the donor also makes a charitable contribution to us.  The size of this contribution will depend on the level of work we’re required to do, how much money we’re distributing and how their funds are invested.  

Over time, we have been able to grow the scale of our activities. For example, we have invested in marketing – to reach more people who want to set up a charitable fund, or those looking for funding. We’ve also invested in IT systems, to help us become more efficient.

We discuss contribution levels with each donor when they’re setting up their fund.

You can read more about the Annual Contributions for Invested funds here

You can read more about the Annual Contributions for Non-Invested funds here