News

The Fore, working closely with the Lovington Foundation, is delighted to announce the opening of the Rapid Action by the Fore and Trusts (‘‘RAFT’’) Fund.  Following the success of an initial fundraising drive to raise £1 million, the fund is now accepting applications for unrestricted resilience grants from charities and social enterprises across the UK with a turnover of under £500,000.

RAFT Fund will make grants of up to £5,000 to help high-quality, well-managed small charities and social enterprises with great leadership weather the coronavirus crisis, and prepare for significantly increased demand on their services once the acute phase of the crisis has passed.

RAFT Fund is complemented by the RAFT Directory of Skilled Volunteer Requests, which enables charities and social enterprises to source skilled volunteers to help them overcome new organisational challenges arising from the coronavirus pandemic.

The first grants will be announced on 6th May 2020.  Applications to RAFT Fund will be accepted in tranches with the application portal opened and closed as funding is raised and distributed. The Fore and partners are continuing to raise additional funding for RAFT Fund. Donations can also be made online.

A number of funders have come together to create the RAFT Fund – The Fore, Lovington Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, Michael and Sarah Spencer, LGT Vestra, Netherby Trust, FourAcre Trust, Golden Bottle Trust and other generous supporters and donors who prefer to remain anonymous.    

The Fore would like to dedicate the RAFT Fund to the memory of Richard Q (Tigger) Hoare OBE who died on 24th March 2020. Richard was the inspirational founder of The Fore’s parent charity, The Bulldog Trust and a venture philanthropist before his time.  The ethos of The Fore and our belief in placing trust in the organisations we support will always be informed by Richard’s generous, open-hearted and entrepreneurial philanthropic example. 

Please contact [email protected] for more details. 

Notes:

About The Fore

The Fore is a ground-breaking funder in the UK charity sector catalysing fresh solutions to pressing social issues. The Fore’s venture capital style approach to grant-funding and skills support has opened up access to finance and professional expertise for over 100 innovative small charities and social enterprises. The Fore’s charity-led approach aims to treat applicants as experts in social change, challenging the power-imbalance of many traditional funding models and enabling organisations to apply for what they need most. 

Since inception in 2017 The Fore has made grants and offered over 4,000 hours of professional expertise to portfolio charities solving issues from knife crime, to childhood obesity, to social isolation, food poverty and homelessness. The Fore works with a wide range of partners including BlackRock, Moody’s, Rothschild & Co., Golden Bottle Trust, Postcode Local Trust, Power to Change, The Lovington Foundation and other family trusts and individuals. For more information, please see The Fore’s website: https://www.thefore.org/and Twitter feed: @theforetrust.

The Fore is part of The Bulldog Trust, registered charity 1123081.

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