Want to know more about the JCI UK Foundation, its history, its purpose and its recent activity?  Then read on…..

The JCI UK Foundation was set up in 1995 with the specific aim of providing JCI UK with financial assistance for events and projects that primarily focus on membership growth.  Since its formation, the JCI UK Foundation (formerly known as the BJC Foundation) has provided grants to over 25 chambers and Regional Groups in support of the activities and development of JCI UK and its members.

The Foundation fund was and is built by invested capital provided by the members of the Foundation.  Membership of the JCI UK Foundation requires a one-off minimum contribution of £500 from each individual.  These contributions are invested, and the proceeds made available to JCI UK and the local chambers for development projects.  Today the JCI UK Foundation has over 125 members.

The interest income from the invested capital is available:

*  to help contribute to the funding of new Chamber launches;

*  to help sustain recently launched Chambers;

*  to help existing Chambers to grow;

*  to co-fund events which have as a clear objective membership growth.

There is also another area of activity for which grants will be made, and that is for ‘defraying’ or helping bear the capital costs incurred by national, regional, or local organisations in the course of maintaining or extending their infrastructures or systems.  It was under this provision that in 2010 the Foundation supported the creation of the then new JCI UK website (from which you are reading this blog article!).

The Foundation is administered by a team of four JCI UK Foundation Trustees – a group of Foundation members tasked with overseeing the management and governance of the Foundation’s activities.  Julia Lea (Chairman), Andrew Thompson, Alli Cowell & Phil Cavalier-Lumley are the current Trustee incumbents.  They are assisted by two further appointees – the Clerk to the Trustees (Elaine Senior), and, where possible, a co-opted Trustee who is usually from the JCI UK National Board team in order to provide that essential link back to the JCI UK organisation itself.  Well, as you may know, I have been the co-opted member of the Trustees since the beginning of this year as part of my Immediate Past National President role.  I wanted to ensure that as well as the close ties that the JCI UK National Board team has with the British Senate, that we also have a continuing close and collaborative working relationship with the JCI UK Foundation.

But what has the JCI UK Foundation done this year?  Well, the Foundation has already provided financial assistance in the form of grants to JCI Sheffield to help off-set the costs of their Business Academy weekend.  The Foundation has also provided money to JCI UK to help with its National Training Academy which was used to help train the new National Training Team members and provide them with the skills to empower them to deliver future development opportunities for JCI UK members.  But that’s not all – the Foundation team are actively working with JCI Greenwich, JCI London and JCI Southampton on further grant applications, plus have held discussions with JCI Brighton on potential grant assistance, and will be working with JCI UK to help provide assistance on off-setting the cost of its new website.

The Foundation team has also worked on its own website and Twitter account this year – check out http://www.jciukfoundation.org.uk/ and follow the Foundation on using its Twitter handle @JCIUKFoundation.

I personally wanted to ensure that as well as the close ties that the JCI UK National Board team has with the British Senate, that JCI UK chambers have a continuing close and collaborative working relationship with the JCI UK Foundation.  To this end I suggested that a great way to help further promote the Foundation and its activities would be to produce a leaflet that chambers and individuals interested in joining the Foundation can take away and peruse at their leisure.  Our marketing guru, Phil Cavalier-Lumley, worked on this using input from the whole team and you can see Phil and the end result below.  Chambers should look out for copies of this leaflet coming their way if they haven’t already got one!

Want to know more?  I, along with the rest of the JCI UK Foundation team, am always more than happy to help any chambers with their grant applications or help with any have any queries they may have about our activities or the grant process.  Please do ask away – we’re here to help….  We also always encourage all JCI UK National Board members and Local Presidents to act as champions for the Foundation and its activities, so you can always ask them too!

By Drew Charman