Kent Community Foundation is a registered company limited by guarantee and a registered charity with the Charity Commission of England and Wales, set up in 2001. As an incorporated charity we have a board of trustees who are our company directors.
KCF’s governing document states the objects of the charity are:
“The promotion of any charitable purposes for the benefit of the community in the County of Kent and the Borough of Medway and in particular the advancement of education the protection of good health both mental and physical and the relief of poverty and sickness; other exclusively charitable purposes in the United Kingdom and elsewhere which are in the opinion of the Trustees beneficial to the community including those in the area of benefit.”
The governing document also gives KCF powers to accept donations, give grants and loans for charitable purposes as well as power to invest funds with a professional investment manager. Donors that set up funds with us hand over stewardship of those fund to our trustees and the proceeds become assets of the charity. We therefore have robust policies surrounding gift acceptance, financial procedures, investments, and grant making.
Our Board of Trustees delegate responsibility to sub-committees in some areas such as:
- Finance and Audit
- Investments
- Staffing and Remuneration
- Grants
- Technology
- Environmental strategy
All sub-committees have terms of reference which are regularly reviewed and trustee membership. Some committees have trusted advisers who specialise in certain areas to add to our trustees’ skills and experience. All decisions are reported back to the board at its quarterly meetings.
Good governance is important to KCF and the board considers recommendations from the charity governance code and as a registered charity with the Fundraising Regulator, follows the Fundraising Code.
We are part of a national network of community foundations. UK Community Foundations runs an accreditation process for all members every three years, with the most recent accreditation currently in progress. This accreditation process ensures that all community foundations in the network are operating to a minimum standard in five core areas: Strategy, governance and risk; Financial and information management; Philanthropy services and donor management; Grant-making and community participation; and Organisational and network development. The process not only requires minimum standards but identifies and celebrates exemplar practice in key areas too.
KCF is also registered as a Living Wage Employer, committing to pay all staff at least the Real Living Wage.
Other areas of strategic focus are our environmental policy, equality diversity and inclusion, and responsible investing.
As part of our environmental strategy, we are a signatory on the Funder Commitment on Climate Change Funder Commitment on Climate Change. To read more about our organisation wide environmental strategy, click here.
At the end of 2020, we asked specialist consultants to undertake an audit of our equality, diversity and inclusion practices. From the resulting report, we wrote an action plan to enable us to improve our practices and hopefully make KCF more diverse, informed and accessible. We have a way to go, but KCF trustees and staff are committed to transforming the culture of the organisation. For more information you can read our EDI statement here.