The purpose of College Charities is to provide the opportunity for the members of Upper College to select and support an ‘official’ charity during their final years at College. This year's charity is Maggies Cancer Care and over the course of the year we will be organising and carrying out various activities and events to support it. However, there will also be a number of other Charities which College support during the year.

The first major event held in aid of Maggies was the College Prefects' 24 Hour Triathlon held on 15 and 16 October.  A separate report on this will be available shortly.  

This year there has also been greater collaboration between College Charities and the Chaplaincy.  There have been two speakers in Chapel so far this year relating to charities which College supports.  The first was Sally Booth, Chief Executive of the Gloucestershire Community Foundation and the second was John Rendall (The Elsa Trust) who was made famous by Christian the Lion. 

Our Charity Committee 2011 / 2012 is:

Student Head of Charities: Will Charlesworth and Lydia Shortt
Master in Charge: Mr Michael Todd
Staff representatives: Mr Karl Cook and Mr James Stubbert
Pupils: JJ Ball, Meghan Suddaby, Madeleine Parsley, Cat Wood, Harry Taylor

Our aims are:

• To give pupils the opportunity to learn about charity and fund-raising
• To give the pupils an opportunity to lead and have a sense of ownership
• To give some structure to the many charity opportunities that are presented and take place at College
• To encourage pupils to serve and give to others. 

• Ideally Gloucestershire based
• Impacts children
• Size - not too big
• Local in preference to National
• Opportunities for College pupils to volunteer their time and services
• Positive synergies with Cheltenham College and CCJS.

These are subject to change without prior notice

If your charity is interested in being considered as the 2012/2013 College Charity, please make sure your applications are submitted in writing by 3 June 2012 to the Master in Charge.

Charity procedures

In June of each year the Head of Charities will be selected from College Prefects. A team of Charity representatives will also be selected. This will be done by the MIC of Charities in consultation with other members of Common Room. The representatives do not need to be College Prefects, however they need to be members of the Upper Sixth.  This team will short-list the charities that have approached the College during the preceding year taking the above guiding principles into consideration. The short-listed candidates will be given the opportunity to present to the committee. 

Ad hoc Charity Activities

College Charities reserves the right to hold one off Charity initiatives / events during the year (eg. Haiti Appeal).  All charity related events and / or fundraisers need to be approved by College Charities if they want their activity endorsed and promoted by College. The process is for all ‘Ad hoc ‘requests to be directed to the Head of Charities, Lydia Shortt or Will Charlesworth who will then correspond with the charity team.

The reason for putting these structures in place is not to dampen enthusiasm for good charity ideas and initiatives, but rather to ensure that fund raising does not target the same group of people too many times in a calendar year.  Also, these processes are not intended to regulate people’s individual charity efforts, however there is a limit to the number of activities and initiatives we can expect the College community to support.

Any major event that has an association with College and a charity must obtain approval from College Charities before preceeding with the event.

Gloucestershire Community Foundation

Gloucestershire Community Foundation brings to life a simple idea of matching those who want to give money to charity, with those who need it most.  They work to help local people find local solutions to local problems, targeting grants that make a difference to the lives of people in Gloucestershire.  They act as the vital bridge between local donors and local needs.

On average, they support many hundreds of voluntary and community projects each year, reaching young and old alike.  The diversity of those they assist is great and includes community centres, sports clubs, theatre groups, recycling schemes, youth clubs, orchestras, exercise classes for the elderly and after school clubs, to name but a few.  They manage a number of charitable Funds on behalf of organisations, individuals and colleges and invite Gloucestershire charities and community groups to apply to us for grants from those same Funds.

We have a long standing relationship (established by previous Headmasters of College and CCJS) with the Gloucestershire Community Foundation and every year we make a contribution.

The students are involved in choosing which charity within GCF to support.  This year there was very strong support for Hop, Skip and Jump.  Hop, Skip and Jump based in the Cotswolds provides centres for play and support for children with a life threatening illness or a special need.  Each year this specialised centre caters for around 163 children and young people with different learning and physical needs.  In 2009 one of our Funds gave them a grant of £5,000 to upgrade their centre facilities which were over 25 years old.  The centre provides a safe haven for children with special needs.

The purpose of College Charities is to provide the opportunity for the members of Upper College to select and support an ‘official’ charity during their final years at College. This year's charity is Maggies and over the course of the year we will be organising and carrying out various activities and events to support it.