New funder round up – 5 recent foundation launches
Melanie May | 20 October 2022 | News
With a number of foundations launching recently to support people and projects across a range of areas, from music to mental health, here’s a round up with more details.
We’re proud to announce the launch of the not-for-profit Apex Foundation, with a generous cornerstone donation from our Founder and CEO Peter Hughes.
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The Apex Foundation
The Apex Foundation has launched to help grassroots charitable projects working in three key areas: the preservation, conservation and protection of the environment; women’s empowerment and economic independence; and education and social mobility.
It is supported by a donation from Apex Group Founder and CEO Peter Hughes, who has also committed to match employee contributions up to a value of $500,000 in 2023.
Apex Group will host an inaugural ‘Purpose Beyond Service Charity Gala’, at the Natural History Museum in London this month, with 300 of the industry’s leaders in attendance. The Gala costs will be covered by Apex Group, and all funds raised will be distributed by the Apex Foundation to four charities (WaterAid, Blue Marine Foundation, CAMFED and Tusk Trust).
The Apex Foundation has been launched as part of Apex Group’s Impact Month, an initiative to drive accountability for ESG in the financial services space. ESG Impact Month aims to educate and raise awareness for ESG issues in the financial services space, support the flow of capital towards sustainable investments, and have an immediate impact through contributing financially to charitable causes.
Kurt Geiger’s The Kindness Foundation
Kurt Geiger has founded The Kindness Foundation, dedicated to giving young people opportunities, support and the resources needed to enter the creative industry.
By working hand-in-hand with social impact initiatives across the globe, the Kindness Foundation aims to make creative roles accessible for everyone, particularly those from marginalised communities.
The aim is to raise £1 million every year to help support its charity partners which include Gurls Talk, Arts Emergency, and Art Start. For every eligible online and in-store purchase, Kurt Geiger donates at least £1 to the Kindness Foundation, as well as raising funds through Kurt Cares Loyalty.
The AJ Tracey Fund
Rapper and music producer AJ Tracey is partnering with St Peter’s College Oxford to support Black students, Black student life and research into Black histories and experiences through the newly formed The AJ Tracey Fund. The AJ Tracey Fund offers support for initiatives within the College that recognise the under-representation of Black students at Oxford. This includes work addressing issues of access and under-representation, expanding opportunities for Black mentorship, supporting the student experience of those from low-income backgrounds, enabling developmental opportunities for Black role models and leaders of the future, and encouraging work on Black experience, Black representation and Black histories.
The AJ Tracey Fund will complement ongoing initiatives at St Peter’s College and the University of Oxford dedicated to widening access and attracting students from historically underrepresented backgrounds to apply.
AJ Tracey has visited St Peter’s College across the past year, speaking with students and staff to gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities for Black students in Oxford.
Over at Cambridge University, Stormzy has supported a number of Black university students through their education, through his scholarship programme and charity the #Merky Foundation, and a partnership with HSBC.
Vaughan Williams Foundation
The Vaughan Williams Foundation launched on 12 October, exactly 150 years after the composer’s birth, to honour the legacy of Ralph and Ursula Vaughan Williams.
It is formed from the merger of the two charities originally founded by Ralph (RVW Trust) and Ursula (Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust), with the ambition of continuing RVW’s support of composers into the future, and making his own work widely accessible to the general public. The foundation is funded by the royalties earned from RVW’s music.
The Foundation offers funding towards: the performance, commissioning or recording of music by professional British/Irish composers active in the last 100 years; or projects and organisations in the UK which create developmental opportunities for composers, or which promote wider awareness of British/Irish music of the last 100 years.
It also supports work that furthers the knowledge and understanding of the life and music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and of the work of Ursula Vaughan Williams.
Finally, it offers £4,000 Vaughan Williams Bursaries for exceptional student composers undertaking their first Masters courses in composition at universities or conservatoires.
Applications are now open, and it has three annual deadlines for general funding applications, and the 2023 deadlines are:
- Wednesday 4 January 2023
- Tuesday 2 May 2023
- Monday 4 September 2023
Harry Kane Foundation
Professional footballer Harry Kane recently launched the Harry Kane Foundation with a long-term goal to help transform a generation’s thinking about mental health.
Its purpose is to help normalise conversations around mental health, promote positive habits that support mental health and tackle stigma.
Read more about it in our earlier coverage.
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.