"The Dreams Charitable Fund is managed by Buckinghamshire Community Foundation as part of the Named Fund Programme. I decided to manage my CSR in this way for a number of reasons. CSR can suck up management time but working with Buckinghamshire Community Foundation takes all the pressure off us.  They are able to vet and assess applications using their experience and local knowledge, deliver the money to the neediest places; they manage the PR and provide us with regular feedback and tangible results of our giving.

"I see the Corporate Social Responsibility of my company as the caring thing to do.  It improves the community where my office is based and where many of my staff live.  Our CSR is successful and it impresses both our suppliers and our customers who see us as a responsible business. Indeed, come contracts depend on CSR.  My staff members have bought into it, they find it fulfilling and it is tax deductible!

"There was a personal reason I chose to start our fund with the Foundation: it is because I was born in Bucks, educated in Bucks and set up my business in Bucks and I think the county is great.  I still live here and I think that it is important to put something back into the community that gave me my business, my staff and my education!"

Mike Clare, Chairman of Dreams Plc

“The Berkshire Community Foundation has been invaluable in identifying projects that can contribute to making a difference to retirement in our local communities. It has helped us facilitate numerous projects which our employees support and engage in. We recognise that working in this way with local community groups creates huge benefits and in order to support such initiatives properly we set up a Prudential fund 10 years ago. Our close working relationship with Berkshire Community Foundation has contributed significantly to the success of our community based initiatives.”

Helen Ellis, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Community Relations, Prudential UK & Europe

“A Community Foundation is ‘genuinely fantastic’. The simplicity and ease of working with a community foundation is a refreshing solution – it turned my idea into a working reality. Normally in life things that appear to be too good to be true are too good, but this one is not like that: it really does work. For anyone interested in getting involved with, or giving to, their local community, I urge them to get in touch with their local community foundation.”

Michael Head, Managing Director, Crown Imperial

“Community Foundation for Surrey has provided an effective means for us to target and evaluate grant applications. Perhaps of most importance, it has connected us with our local community, provided connections which had not existed since neither of us is from Surrey. It has opened our eyes to the social needs on our immediate doorstep to which, I hate to admit it, we were completely oblivious."

Helen Bowcock, Community Foundation for Surrey