Joyce had set up a charitable trust with her husband, Bill Needham Cooper, shortly before he died in 1988 and had always channelled some of the trust’s income through the community foundation to support a range of smaller, local projects that she would not be able to find out about on her own.

Then in 1999, around the time of her 90th birthday, she decided to reduce the day-to-day administration of her trust and set up the fund within the community foundation. The fund is a working partnership, with the community foundation suggesting projects that might be of interest to Joyce and providing advice and all the associated administration. Joyce has a clear vision about where the money from her fund should be spent – older people who are living in isolation and poverty are high on her list of priorities.

Working with the foundation allows Joyce to retain hands-on decision making about grants to be made from her fund.

The arrangement has been an ideal way for her to support local organisations:

"It is perfect. I feel that it has consolidated the close personal relationship that we had built up with local groups over time. I am delighted that the local charities we’ve been able to support over the years will still be helped in years to come."

Joyce died in 2011 at the age of 101, having been an active supporter of the foundation for over 20 years.