Today, 9th August 2018, we celebrated 1 year since we were registered with the Charity Commission. To celebrate, we invited our trustees, volunteers, partners and corporate supporters to join us for a networking party (with cake of course) including a short presentation from the director, Sarah Swindley.
Sarah highlighted our activities and achievements over the year, including having raised almost £400,000 for 16 different projects in the last 12 months.
Sarah Swindley says, “Growing a new charity is an amazing challenge for any third sector leader. We have big plans at the LDF and are working hard to achieve our ambitious goals. It’s been a busy year so far, running two organisations in parallel as we said goodbye to Nurture Lakeland and transitioned all our work into the new structure.
“We are a tiny team of with the equivalent of four full time staff. Our influential trustees are the heart of our organisation and I would like to thank the board, my staff and our volunteers for all this hard work. We have had incredible support from the many that see the necessity of an independent charity that is noncampaigning, politically neutral and aims to make a positive difference by harnessing the love that people have for the area.”
Over 30 supporters attended the event and were asked to help us to answer the following questions:
- How can we work better together?
- What would you like us to prioritise in the next 12 months?
- What projects would you like us to support?
We received some great ideas and we look forward to putting your ideas into action.
Attendees received a copy of our annual report, hot off the press! You can read it here.
Attention is now shifting towards the next 12 months. Director Sarah Swindley, added: “Our first grants will shortly be awarded and there are many amazing projects that we can support come to life. I’m excited to see where the future takes us. We are planning two new campaigns that will look to raise funds directly from the public to distribute to great work in the Lake District. We are working with Natural England on an exciting piece of work on the Cumbrian West Coast, linked to the new national coastal path. We are also developing our partnership with Cumbria Tourism and others to look at how we use every opportunity to promote sustainable tourism habits and approaches.
To keep up to date with the latest news from the Lake District Foundation, sign up to our newsletter or follow us on twitter, facebook and instagram!
