Wiltshire Community Foundation

🎉 The real Living Wage has risen! Wiltshire Community Foundation is extremely proud to be officially accredited as a Living Wage employer, certified by the Living Wage Foundation earlier this year. The new real Living Wage across the UK is now set at a minimum of £12.60 per hour, which is calculated at the cost of living. We chose to commit to paying the real Living Wage as both a dedication to our employees and acknowledgement of their continued tireless work to improve the lives of those within our local community. Read more about the real Living Wage, and our commitment to it, below 👇 bit.ly/3Li3taa

😊 Thank you to Goughs Solicitors for inviting us to meet with their lovely Private Client team today to discuss our impact across Wiltshire and Swindon. We had a brilliant time!

🌍 It's #WorldValuesDay, and Wiltshire Community Foundation are proud to be a values-based organisation. 🤔 So, what does that mean? This means that we underpin our work with our core values, expressed as 'BRICKS', and apply them within everything we do. The Foundation is build upon these BRICKS, outlined below, which are the values that we live and operate by: 🧱 Brave 🧱 Representative 🧱 Informed 🧱 Collaborative 🧱 Kind 🧱 Strategic 💚 Today, we have chose to focus on Collaboration, which we value so that we can change lives by connecting people who care, with causes that matter. What do you value? World Values Day

Looking for an event that will drive social change and strive to create a safer, fairer, and thriving society? 🤝 'Inspiring Confident Allyship' aims to act as a catalyst for wider action towards gender equality across Wiltshire and Swindon. 💬 Featuring guest speakers and the opportunity to network with fellow delegates, the event is held on 22 November, in the Legends Lounge at The County Ground in Swindon, and is open to individuals, companies and small businesses. 💚 It is hoped that best practices from this event will not only generate a positive impact on employee retention, productivity and recruitment, with female employees feeling safer and more supported in their workplace, but also inspire real change cross the county. 🗣 Entrepreneur James Phipps outlined how, as a business leader, gaining further insight into equality challenges can have positive outcomes and produce better leaders: "Business is a competitive environment and for many has become harder to grow or make a profit or attract or retain the best staff. "Going to events like this can hopefully give a greater insight to some of the equality challenges and that can only be a positive to being a better leader and having a better, more successful business.” Tickets are selling fast, and you can book yours today by clicking the link below! 👇 🎟 bit.ly/3UxUgjl This event is kindly sponsored by Charlton Baker

We had an absolutely brilliant time at the UK Community Foundations 2024 Conference in Harrogate this week! 🤝 We really enjoyed the variety of thought-provoking and insightful sessions, hosted by engaging speakers, and have loved the opportunities to network with fellow Community Foundations. From learning about the art of storytelling, to AI, to climate change and many more topics, we gained a valuable insight into a variety of important topics, which we have all taken on board. 👏 Well done to all of our speakers - Margaret, Fiona and Vicky and Megan for doing Wiltshire Community Foundation proud! Thank you to Ben and Kaveed, and the whole team at UKCF for putting on the event, we are looking forward to the next one!

🫶 Today is #WorldMentalHealthDay, and Wiltshire Community Foundation would like to reach out to those who are struggling with their mental health. We are proud to support various charities across the county who offer valuable support to those who are suffering. If you are currently struggling with your mental health, you are not alone - there are people who will listen. We encourage all those who are struggling with their mental health to reach out. 💚 Please reach out and talk to someone.

🌟 We had a wonderful evening last night, holding our annual celebration in Devizes town hall. It was great to see so many familiar faces! 💚 The theme of this year’s celebration was the power of partnerships, and it was great to see everyone together in one place. Thank you to all those who attended - from patrons to trustees, to donors and friends of WCF, to charity and voluntary organisations and individuals, to former employees or associates of the Foundation. It was as much a collective celebration of all of you, as it was of WCF. You truly make the Foundation special and allow us to help change the lives of thousands of people in Wiltshire and Swindon. 🗣 Thank you to all of our speakers; William Ingram Hill from Wansbroughs Solicitors and Andrew Robinson from CCLA whose organisations both kindly sponsored the event, Dan Thompson from KENNET FURNITURE REFURBIZ LTD., and of course our brilliant Chair of Trustees Angus Macpherson, and joint Chief Executives Fiona Oliver, and Vicky Hickey ACMA. 😊 We were also joined by the Lord Lieutenant for Wiltshire and Swindon, Sarah Troughton, and High Sherriff of Wiltshire, Dr Olivia Chapple OBE EMH, and would like to thank them both for their continued support of the Foundation. 📕 We would also like to thank the wonderful Fanny Charles and Gay Pirrie-Weir, who have generously supported us with over £20,000 in donations, from their book Deepest Wiltshire. They were the first people to support the Wiltshire and Swindon Coronavirus appeal in 2020, and we will always be grateful for their incredible support to the county. 📸 Finally, thank you to the incredibly talented Tiger Watts for photographing the event. As a former recipient of one our SWEF grants, we are extremely proud to have played a part in your development, and have no doubt you will continue to have a long and successful career in the creative industries. 📗 Our 2023/24 annual review will be mailed out shortly, and as announced last night, we are very pleased to say that our endowment has now exceeded £30 million, and we were able to award over £2 million in grants during 2023/24. We will be sharing further details regarding the annual review on Friday.

Wiltshire Community Foundation are proud to announce 'Inspiring Confident Allyship' - an event which aims to drive social change, raise awareness of gender inequality, and promote the importance of male allyship. Hosted by James Threlfall MBE, an advocate for youth empowerment, speakers include Frank Mullane MBE, an expert in family support and domestic abuse prevention, Jeremy Blain, a global leadership and workplace culture specialist, and Kate Rowland from Swindon Domestic Abuse Support Service. Speakers will share their insights on how male allyship can play a critical role in challenging negative behaviour and advancing equality in professional and personal environments. The event will take place on 22 November from 10am-1pm, in the newly refurbished Legends Lounge at The County Ground, Swindon Town Football Club. Tickets are £30 per person. Our joint Chief Executive, Fiona Oliver, said: "This important event will provide an opportunity for the business community to come together and learn more about the role of male allyship and how this can improve workplace culture so we have safer, equitable, thriving communities for all." The event is kindly sponsored by Charlton Baker For more info, and to book tickets 👇 bit.ly/4dhRi8X

🤩 Look what has arrived! In July, we were proud to share that we had officially been accredited as a Living Wage Employer, certified by the Living Wage Foundation! The real Living Wage is the only rate calculated according to the cost of living. It is a voluntary benchmark for employers to ensure that their staff earn a wage they can live on, not just the government minimum. We are so pleased to have joined the network of organisations that have committed to paying the real Living Wage, and we hope to inspire and encourage other employers within our local community to follow in our footsteps. Speaking in July, our Joint Chief Executive Vicky Hickey said: "Our staff are so important to us as an organisation, they’re at the heart of what we do and work extremely hard, and I am really proud that they will be earning a pay which reflects this." Read more 👇 bit.ly/3Li3taa

It's #gcseresultsday, and everyone at Wiltshire Community Foundation congratulates all those collecting their results today! We would also like to reach out to young people across the county planning to study a vocational course, qualification or undertake an apprenticeship from September. Our Vocational Grants programme is currently open for applications, and those aged 14-24, from low-income backgrounds, who live in Wiltshire or Swindon, are eligible to apply. Grants of up to £1,000 are available, and it is aimed at those about to start a vocational course in subjects like engineering, IT, health and social care, hairdressing, beauty, cookery, plumbing, construction, and many more. The grants can support the costs of books, resources, equipment, study/field trips, IT software, and travel. For more information and how to apply, click below! 👇 https://lnkd.in/e5ZyN8bd