In 2022, after 26 years of committed grant-making to small charities in Yorkshire, the Denton Charitable Trust decided to wind-up its giving and merge its remaining funds with the Sir George Martin Trust. The two West Yorkshire-based, independent funding organisations had a strong history of working together, with the Sir George Martin Trust’s former Secretary, Peter Marshall OBE, helping the Denton Charitable Trust’s Founder, Susan Wood, to set up her Trust back in 1996.
Susan says: “I thoroughly enjoyed running the Trust for many years and felt honoured to have met so many passionate, dedicated charity workers and volunteers, but due to an increasing need to be tech-savvy and a decrease in applications, the trustees and I decided it was the right time to cease operations. We looked at various options including giving the funds to one or more local community foundations and “spending out” fully to existing grant holders. However, knowing that the Sir George Martin Trust is very professionally run , the team have a similar ethos to us and we wanted to keep giving to West Yorkshire people in some way, we decided to go down this route. We made a number of larger donations to charities which we have supported before and then transferred the remaining funds to the Sir George Martin Trust which was a very simple operation.
“Things have worked out extremely well. I am now a Sir George Martin Trust Fellow, which means that every month I get sent the latest grant holder outcome reports so I can see how our funds are being spent and the impact, and I attend the AGM and Fellowship Lunch which takes place every December.”
Contact our Trust Manager, Carla Marshall info@sirgeorgemartintrust.org.uk or 01943 605372 to discuss this further.
