The City of London Corporation has donated £40,000 towards two charities providing vital support during the continuing Covid-19 crisis in London and the UK.
The governing body for the Square Mile has given £20,000 to the British Red Cross to support its work nationally and £20,000 to Team Rubicon UK to assist in its aid efforts tackling the coronavirus outbreak in London.
The City Corporation is encouraging organisations and individuals to follow suit by supporting the charities through donations.
The coronavirus outbreak is an unfolding global health emergency. The UK is in the midst of the pandemic with the death toll now exceeding 17,000 people.
The British Red Cross has adapted its services to deal with the impact of the virus on the most vulnerable in society. The funding will go towards its work supporting the NHS, coordinating in communities to ensure the most vulnerable receive food packages and providing tailored support to vulnerable groups.
Team Rubicon UK is assisting with the coordinated response to the coronavirus pandemic in London. Funding will go towards its work supporting Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, helping with the running of the NHS Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre and doing mortuary tasks in Westminster.
The charity is working in collaboration with the London Strategic Co-ordination Group in its multi-agency delivery efforts across London.
The donation comes from the City Corporation’s Disaster Relief Fund, which seeks to back emergency relief efforts, bringing its total donations in the last three years to over £300,000.
Jeremy Mayhew, chairman of the City of London Corporation’s Finance Committee, said: “Charitable organisations in the UK are navigating through uncertain times and having to adapt services to deal with the challenges posed by the lockdown.
“These organisations are doing fantastic work supporting communities and are making a huge difference by drawing on their wealth of experience.
“We encourage all individuals and organisations – who can help – to play their part and support these charities.”
The City of London Corporation gives millions of pounds to charities each year as part of its commitment to creating a fairer, more inclusive, and sustainable society.
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In the past three years, the City of London Corporation has also given £25,000 to Team Rubicon’s UK’s Hurricane Dorian disaster response appeal; £30,000 to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Cyclone Idai Appeal; £25,000 towards the We Love Manchester Appeal, following the devastating terror attack in the city; £70,000 to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Indonesia Tsunami Appeals; £75,000 in total to emergency appeals in Burma, South Asia, and for those affected by Hurricane Irma.
Its charitable funder, City Bridge Trust, is London’s biggest independent grant giver, making grants of £20 million a year to combat deprivation and inequality. The Trust has awarded around 8,000 grants totalling over £400 million since it first began in 1995.
It helps achieve the City Corporation’s aim of changing the lives of hundreds of thousands of Londoners.
City Bridge Trust recently announced new emergency funding for 170 small charities in London to support them through Covid-19. It is giving grants of up to £15,000 to all of the small charities it currently supports.
The money will go towards supporting the charities with running costs and to help organisations in replacing loss of income, supporting them now and in the months ahead before society begins to return to normality.
In response to Covid-19, an alliance of funders, coordinated by the membership network, London Funders, has come together to pledge support to charities and civil society organisations affected by the outbreak.
As part of this response, the City of London Corporation, as trustee of Bridge House Estates, has established the London Community Response Fund as a vehicle to receive funds which can be used to make grants to charities and civil society organisations in London.
The LCRF is administered by City Bridge Trust, the funding arm of the City of London Corporation’s charity Bridge House Estates. The founding funders, City Bridge Trust and the GLA, both contributed £1million.
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