The Covid 19 pandemic has created an unprecedented challenge for civil society.  Like other organisations Barrow Cadbury Trust has been considering how best to respond to the situation as it unfolds.  Our priority is to try to minimise the damage done to the causes we support and to respond to their immediate need.  We have written to our grantees assuring them of our support and flexibility.  And we are encouraging  them to talk to us about the impacts of the virus either on the work we are funding or the wider work of their organisation.

In addition, currently through the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF,) we are discussing joint responses with other national funders and are looking at how best we can support the sectors we fund and what further measures we might be able to take.  The Trust has deep links with Birmingham and the Black Country and we will be contributing to the Heart of England Community Foundation’s Emergency Appeal.

We believe that the best and most effective response to the crisis is to work in partnership with others and contribute to the collective efforts of our sector, hence the approaches we are taking with other funders and with sector leaders, many of whom have much greater resources than Barrow Cadbury Trust.  We regret, therefore that we are unable to support appeals from individual organisations unless you are current or recent partners of the Trust.  If you are, do please get in touch.