CHARITY
MONITOR
WCIT Charity
Grant Giving
As many of you may know, WCIT Charity is a grant-making charity. This
means that we use the funds which we raise to make grants to charitable
projects...last year the WCIT Charity made grants of over £100,000.
These grants must be consistent with the objects of the WCIT Charity, this
just means that we apply the funds in ways which absolutely reflect what we
told our donors, and are consistent with what we are registered to do with the
Charities Commission.
What are the objectives of the WCIT Charity?
Our two main objects are to help other charities to get the best use out of
their IT, and to promote education around IT. The first of these means that we
are able to help a wide range of end users, through funding IT projects in
their charities. WCIT Charity has some priority areas within this broad remit:
We caught up with Trustee of
the WCIT Charity and
Chairman of the ChOps
Committee, Court Assistant
Gary Moore, to find out more
about how our Charity applies
its grant-funding...
Enhancing opportunity for young people through more effective education.
Improving the quality of life for the disadvantaged disabled and socially
excluded.
Helping charities and other not-for-profit organisations get the best out of
IT.
Improving the understanding of IT and its capabilities to the wider public.
What is ChOps and what does it do within the Livery
Company?
ChOps is the shorthand name for the Charitable Operations Committee. It
evaluates requests for grants, ensures that grants meet our charitable
objectives and makes recommendations for funding. It also channels
projects into the Projects & Pro Bono Panel (P&P) process if strategic
volunteer support from our members is needed.
Where does ChOps get its money?
Three of our recent
beneficiary charities
have been shortlisted
for the Digital Leaders
100 award:
“Charity Digital Leader of the
Year 2016”
Lifelites
AbilityNet
Bristol Braille Technology
Please vote for them at the
website until May 27th at:
www.digileaders100.com/
vote/
Page 10
From donations by the membership, fundraising by the Panels and one-off
donations from businesses and other organisations. As Continuous
Charitable Giving (CCG) continues to gather momentum, we will have more
money to give away each year. If you would like to sign up to CCG to help
increase our grant-giving from the WCIT Charity then please do contact
Eleanor at the Hall at [email protected]
What level of grant funding does the WCIT Charity make?
We typically make grants in the £3k-£10k range, and occasionally donate up
to £25k for particularly compelling cases. We have a process for
considering applications - applicants submit a formal application to WCIT
Charity, via Eleanor MacGregor, the Charity Coordinator; these are analysed
and considered quarterly by Charitable Operations Committee (ChOps). The
criteria which we consider when evaluating an application:
Disadvantage/Disability – this is a priority area for the Charity
Working with or helping young people
Education – this one of the pillars for Livery Companies
Accessibility and social exclusion
IT – there has to be an IT component to the proposed project
Links to City and Livery – we value our Livery context