Berkeley Foundation is a relational funder. This means that we are always looking to build strong relationships with the organisations we fund and find ways to support them beyond funding.
We are hugely grateful for the support of our incredible colleagues from across Berkeley Group, who give their time and skills to support the work of the Foundation. Last year, staff volunteered a record-breaking 1,992 hours of their time. In total, 61% of Berkeley colleagues chose to get involved in our work – a figure we are justifiably proud of.
To find out what our charity partners think about our partnership approach, we launched an anonymous survey for all organisations we work with. This forms part of the Foundation’s broader strategic commitments around partnerships and learning, and the intention is to use this feedback to learn and evolve our grant-making approach.
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84% of survey respondents strongly agreed or agreed that the Foundation adds value to their partnership beyond funding.
This wouldn’t be possible without the support of Berkeley Group and its staff, so we wanted to share some of their feedback:
“The Berkeley Foundation strives to connect its staff with our charity's mission, and encourages and facilitates volunteering opportunities, event attendance, and staff engagement where possible.”
“The Foundation has been a critical friend challenging us to think more strategically to grow and develop and evolve our offering, including supporting with work experience and placement opportunities.”
We also asked our partners about their future needs, and requested feedback on how we could improve our partnership approach. An emerging trend was appetite among our partners for more access to the Berkeley business and more work experience and placements across sites and offices.
In response, we are working with Berkeley Group to develop more employment pathways and opportunities for young people supported by our partners.
Having the support of Berkeley Group colleagues makes a tremendous difference to what we can offer our charity partners, and we want to thank everyone who gets involved in skills sharing, work placements or other ways of supporting young people in our communities.