Hertfordshire Community Foundation
Foundation House, 2-4 Forum Place
Fiddlebridge Lane, Hatfield
Hertfordshire AL10 0RN

T: 01707 251351

E: office@hertscf.org.uk

Dear Deputy Lieutenant                                                                      1^st April 2020

Coronavirus Emergency Relief Fund for Hertfordshire

The current extraordinary circumstances are hitting us all but, as work disappears, many more families are being forced to turn to their communities for help. The food banks, the homeless shelters, care assistants were already stretched and now need to find so much more.

HCF has been asked to administer National Emergency Trust (NET) funds in Hertfordshire, as with all other Community Foundations for their respective counties. Locally HCF has so far raised excess £60,000 from donors in Hertfordshire and a further £50,000 has come to us from NET.

Our HCF team are working from home but are coordinating the grant applications and getting funds out to deserving charities as quickly as possible. We are unable to support core costs of charities at this stage choosing to apply grants that hit the communities quickly, provide front line support and ultimately, we hope, alleviate pressure on the NHS.

Our first grants totalling £20,000 went out yesterday to a broad range of groups including Carers in Hertfordshire, Herts Disability Sports Partnership and Phoenix Children’s Group for Deaf Children and Young Adults. These grants will provide direct support to some of the County’s most vulnerable residents; more will go later in the week, and so on for as long as our funds last.

In ordinary times we wouldn’t be asking you for more as so many of you give generously to HCF – but these are not ordinary times and many people in Hertfordshire are likely to be facing a larger crisis than anyone could have foreseen a few weeks ago.  All the money raised will support frontline organisations that help elderly, vulnerable and isolated individuals. There is no target, the more we raise, the more hits the ground in areas of need.

You can donate via our Just Giving Page

www.justgiving.com/campaign/coronavirusfundhertfordshire

or by transfer to Hertfordshire Community Foundation

A/c no: 28592379    Sort Code: 60/10/39

Thank you, best wishes and keep safe and please pass this on to any groups of possible supporters in Hertfordshire.

Henry Holland-Hibbert

Chairman HCF