LONDON, 2015-7-14 — /Travel PR News/ — Heathrow Community Fund has appointed a new Director, Dr Beccy Bowden, to develop the future potential of the grant-making charity and its work in communities local to Heathrow Airport.
The new appointment comes as the Fund announced its half-year grant awards of more than £283,000 in the first half of the year which included support for community projects like:
- Hounslow’s Friends of the River Crane
- Spelthorne Borough Council’s Fordbridge Park Tennis Project
- The 6th Ealing Scouts Group
- Hillingdon Community Transport ‘s Shoppa Bus for the elderly or disabled
- Richmond’s Meadlands Primary Schools’ Heathrow Eco Centre
- Together 4 Good CIC’s Older people in Slough Living Active, Living Healthy, Living Together programme
- Windsor Boy’s School Boat Club’s Outreach Investment programme
For the last seven years, Dr Bowden has been the Chief Executive Officer of Surrey Satro, a charity and social enterprise that works with young people to build their interest and skills in science, technology, engineering, maths and business by working with business volunteers. Her experience running a small charity at a time of significant cuts to government funding led her to seek a role helping other local organisations in a similar position. She will continue involvement with Satro, and her role as Trustee of two other charities (Surrey Youth Focus and EDT).
Her role with Heathrow Community Fund will be to grow the impact, profile and income for the charity, to bring greater benefits to local community organisations and voluntary groups.
The charity’s current Director Caroline Nicholls is moving on after 12 years to work within the voluntary sector, closer to her home on the West Sussex coast.
Commenting on the opportunities ahead, Dr Bowden said:
“These are challenging times for voluntary organisations and social enterprises and Heathrow Community Fund is uniquely placed to fund high-impact projects in an area of huge contrasts and great need.
“I also believe that the Fund could make a great difference to the local voluntary organisations by helping them to further develop the business acumen and networks that they will need, not only to survive but also to meet the new challenges in society that will emerge in the next few years.
“Thanks to the continued support and funding from Heathrow, the community fund has already made a considerable positive impact through grants to hundreds of local groups, schools and voluntary organisations since it was first set up nearly 20 years ago – I look forward to helping the charity develop further in the future.”
Heathrow Community Fund Chairman Steve Ronald, who is also Head of Product for British Airways, said:
“Beccy will be a great asset to our work – she has a strong track record working at a senior level with the youth sector in Surrey and excellent local networks in both the voluntary and business sector; we look forward to working with her to take Heathrow Community Fund to new heights.
“I would also like to thank Caroline for the skill and commitment she has brought to developing the fund over the years – it has been able to benefit many community projects as a result.”
The Heathrow Community Funds awards is an independent charity set up in 1996 by Heathrow Airport and awards more than £600,000 a year to local charities and community programmes. Its main sources of income include an annual donation from Heathrow Airport Ltd as well as fines imposed on aircraft which breach noise limits.
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NOTES TO EDITORS:
A list of the grants awarded so far this year is attached.
For more information about Heathrow Community Fund and how to apply for grants visit
Heathrow Community Fund is governed by an independent board of Trustees, supported by a panel of local community representatives, chosen for their understanding of local needs and issues.
The Fund currently runs four distinct grant programmes, reaching out to support communities in Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Richmond, Runnymede, Slough, Spelthorne, South Bucks, Windsor and Maidenhead. It works with the community charity Groundwork South to manage the programme.
Communities Together offers up to £2500 for a wide range of community-focussed projects and Communities for Tomorrow, part funded by aircraft noise fines, awards grants of up to £25,000 for projects that help protect the environment.
Schools and youth organisations working with young people in the five boroughs that border Heathrow – Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Slough and Spelthorne – can apply for grants of up to £25,000 under the Communities for Youth scheme.
Last year Heathrow Community Fund also launched Inspiring Youth, investing more than £250,000 in partnership with youth charities The Challenge and Mosaic to engage hundreds of young people in the Heathrow area in social action to support their community. It will be making further grants towards the programme during 2015.
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Dr Beccy Bowden appointed new director Heathrow Community Fund