Our Story
1999
The Community Foundation for Merseyside is initially established as Sefton Community Foundation, a Southport-based charitable trust, helping donors to support the local community.
2002
Sefton Community Foundation moves to premises kindly provided by Alliance & Leicester. The service expands to support grant-making across other boroughs across Merseyside.
2004
The Community Foundation for Merseyside is established, with the late Sir Alan William Waterworth KCVO as President, and Ian Chapman as Chair.
2007
Cherie Blair, CBE, KC, barrister and founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation, becomes our Patron, donating her time to passionately promote the importance of charitable giving that will support communities with the most need.
2011
The team moves to new offices in central Liverpool, generously donated by the Grosvenor Liverpool Fund.
2014
The Community Foundation for Merseyside and the Community Foundation for Lancashire merge to form the Community Foundations for Lancashire and Merseyside to improve governance, retaining their individual regional identities to focus on local need and local giving.
2017
Mark Blundell Esq DL, Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside, becomes President of the Community Foundation for Merseyside, taking over from Dame Lorna Elizabeth Muirhead DCVO DBE CStJ DL FRCOG and previous Lord-Lieutenant of Merseyside
Rae Brooke joins the organisation as CEO, bringing with her a wealth of experience gained in both private and public sector organisations, including Hill Dickinson LLP, Littlewoods Pools, Volvo Truck and Bus, Northwest Regional Development Agency, and KPMG.
2023
David Wareing, ex Managing Partner at Hill Dickinson, is appointed as Chairman. David takes over from Arthur Roberts, who served as the Chair of the Community Foundations for Lancashire and Merseyside for over ten years.
2024
Since 1999, the Community Foundation for Merseyside has distributed in excess of £51.4m to charities and community groups across Merseyside. Our grants have benefitted over 5.9 million people to date.
Our Impact
We exist to enrich and improve the lives of the people of Merseyside. It’s important we can evidence the impact we have made to all our stakeholders, so we have in place robust processes to enable us to do this.
Our People
Everyone on our team has one thing in common – we are all passionate about growing a stronger community together and helping those most in need across Merseyside.
