Agenda item

Report of the Chief Grants Officer & Director of City Bridge Trust .

The Committee considered a Report of the Chief Grants Officer and Director of City

Bridge Trust concerning the FC’s International Disaster Fund.

The Chairman noted that, given the frequency with which the Fund had been utilised for domestic appeals in recent years, the somewhat blanket wording in the Report, namely, “the expectation was that the Fund will only be used for domestic causes in exceptional circumstances”, was now misleading, and it would be helpful for both Members and officers to recognise that the picture was now, de facto, more nuanced, with a more equitable balance between international and domestic donations likely to endure for the foreseeable future given the unfolding damage from the pandemic in the UK.

Whilst stressing that City Bridge Trust provide significant philanthropic sums in support of domestic issues and that we should avoid duplication, officers took on board the Chairman’s point and would ensure that our choices around donations were cognisant of the outlook domestically as well as internationally.

The Chairman also tasked officers, to in effect, raise our game on leadership and test whether our interventions are making an effective impact in terms of getting others to donate. It was apparent that the donations we have made via are Fund are, all too often, too mechanical and that follow-up or impact analysis was absent. He asked the CBT team would work with the Communications Team to look at ways in which we can be more active and improve our effectiveness over the coming year.

The Chairman also welcome Mark Wheatley’s intervention; Mr Wheatley is the lead for the City of London for the British Red Cross, he remarked that the Corporation was uniquely placed to provide leadership from both a domestic and international perspective given our relationships with multiple stakeholders. The Chairman asked officers to liaise with Mr Wheatley going forward and for an update to be provided in early 2022.

RESOLVED – that the Committee (with the caveat around domestic versus international donations) approved the following:

1. the criteria for dealing with donations from the IDF at Appendix 1.

2. an uplift in the budget for the IDF of £25,000 from savings within the City’s Cash Grants budget.