Annual Review 2020
Working togetherto build a resilient community
Annual Review 2020
Covid-19 has had an enormous impact on our lives and communities this year. The pandemic has taken a real toll on young people, with significant rises in youth unemployment, youth homelessness, and mental ill health. Our first priority has been the charities we work with, and the communities they serve. We have committed over £650,000 to supporting our charity partners through the crisis, which has helped them deliver food to families living in poverty, video counselling sessions for young people struggling with their mental health, and much more.
Alongside all of this, we have continued to deliver our 2018 – 2021 strategy, working with our long-term charity partners to build a society where every young person can thrive. As part of this, we have renewed two of our major strategic partnerships. We will support Lord’s Taverners to deliver the Super 1s disability cricket programme for another four years, scaling up the work in Birmingham and around London. We will also work with The Change Foundation to continue the Street Elite programme for another five years – the longest commitment we’ve ever made.
The Foundation’s work on these and other partnerships was recognised this year at the Third Sector Business Charity Awards where we won four categories, including the main ‘Best Business’ award.
As we look beyond Covid-19, we all need to play our part in building a fairer future.Rob Perrins, Chairman
£3mWe provided £3m to partner charities in 2019/20 through grants, fundraising and GAYE.
£350,000Over £350,000 awarded in emergency Covid-19 grants so far.
+63%of Berkeley Group staff continue to fundraise and volunteer to support our work.
The Berkeley Foundation is the grant-making foundation established by Berkeley Group in 2011. We work with the voluntary sector and others to help young people overcome barriers, improve their lives and build a fairer society.
Everything we do is underpinned by long-term partnerships. We work closely with charities that model new approaches to the challenges facing young people. We go beyond funding wherever possible, providing capacity building support, and adding value through our relationship with Berkeley Group and wider networks.
Ensuring young people have secure, stable accommodation.
1,149young people reached this year
Enabling young people to overcome barriers to work and kick-start their careers.
875young people reached this year
Helping young people develop the skills and capabilities they need to thrive.
1,429young people reached this year
Our vision is for a society where every young person can thrive. We think about our impact of our work on three levels: individual, organisational, and systemic.
Dipti and her two young children were struggling following the loss of a baby, and were receiving help from a family support worker at Home-Start Barnet Brent Enfield & Harrow, part of the Home-Start London consortium.
Surrey Young Carers, part of Action for Carers Surrey, offers activities and opportunities for young carers across Surrey to take time out of their caring role and meet other children in a similar position.
Carla is a young person with experience of care who was referred to Settle, an award-winning social enterprise, in June 2019. She was about to move into her first home when they got in touch.
Jane is 24. She was made homeless after experiencing family breakdown, and found herself alternating between sleeping rough, sofa surfing, and staying in all-night bars to keep out of the cold. When homelessness charity Rentstart met Jane she was struggling with mental health issues, and desperate for accommodation.
Emily, who is 18 and from Greenwich, took part in The Money House programme this year: “I study Health and Social Care at college. I’m doing this course so I can learn how to manage my money.”
Owen used to run a mechanics business and owned a house in London, but was a victim of theft and fraud and lost both his business and his home.
Everything changed in March 2020. Covid-19 moved quickly from being a distant threat to a present reality, and transformed even the smallest aspects of our daily lives.
Some elements of our response were immediately clear. As a long-term funder, we would be there for our charity partners. We would flex targets and deadlines, delay reports and lift funding restrictions, listening all the time to our partners and what they needed from us.
I would like to thank the Berkeley Group, for its continued funding, and for the unwavering enthusiasm of staff across the company for raising money and volunteering their time and skills to support communities. During the pandemic, their commitment has gone far beyond our work at the Foundation, with huge quantities of PPE giving to charities, car parking spaces donated to key workers, and much more.
Sally Dickinson
Head of the Berkeley Foundation
The Berkeley Foundation is the working name of The Berkeley Charitable Foundation, a registered charity in England and Wales (Charity Number 1152596), a company registered in England and Wales (Registration Number 8548400).
The Berkeley Foundation
Berkeley House
19 Portsmouth Road
Cobham
Surrey
KT11 1JG
