London Community Response Fund receives £12m boost
Melanie May | 4 August 2020 | News
The London Community Response Fund (LCRF), which is helping organisations continue providing vital services through the pandemic, has received a boost of £12 million.
City Bridge Trust, the City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, has pledged £5 million to the fund, with a further £7 million coming from The National Lottery Community Fund.
This brings the total pledged to the London Community Response Fund to over £25 million, including £11 million from City Bridge Trust, £5 million from the Mayor of London and donations from 15 other funders and companies.
Dhruv Patel, Chairman of the City of London Corporation’s City Bridge Trust Committee, said:
“The LCRF has already played a hugely important role in helping London’s charities and voluntary organisations across the capital which are doing critical work on the coronavirus frontline to cope with the impact of the pandemic.
“The new funding we’ve committed and the funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, thanks to National Lottery players, means the LCRF can support more organisations and help more vulnerable people right across the capital.”
The London Community Response Fund forms part of the wider London Community Response, co-ordinated by membership network London Funders, which has brought together over 60 funders committed to distributing over £40 million together since it was set up at the start of the pandemic.
One of the organisations which has benefitted from LCRF funding is Rushey Green Time Bank, (main image) based in Lewisham. It helps match volunteers with time and skills to share with opportunities to help. During the pandemic, it has run the borough’s COVID-19 Lewisham Local response hub in partnership with three other charities, delivering 10,000 food parcels and offering telephone befriending, practical help, information and guidance.
The grant of £73,352 it received enabled it and its partner charities – Voluntary Services Lewisham, Age UK Lewisham and Southwark, Lewisham Foodbank – to increase staffing and premises capacity and improve internal systems and infrastructure, to ensure they could meet surging demand for their services.
Phillipe Granger, Rushey Green Time Bank Chief Executive, said:
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“When the pandemic began, we very quickly had to adapt our services to ensure we could help those in need, and it’s been an incredible experience working so closely with other organisations and benefitting from the unique expertise each has to offer.
“The London Community Response Fund grant was a game-changer and was vital to ensure the hub could continue with the confidence it could meet demand. We’re so grateful for the simple and easy way organisations like ours are quickly able to access the funds we need to make a difference on the ground.”
Information on how to apply to the fund is available on its dedicated site.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.