The Foundation is delighted to publish its Annual Report and accounts for the financial year 2018/19.
The Report reflects a year of significant achievements in the development of the Foundation. During 2018, trustees agreed three over-arching strategic priorities to ensure that the Foundation could deliver significant, long-term and sustainable impact on the issues about which the charity most cares:
• Promoting strong and cohesive communities
• Enabling young people to realise their potential
• Empowering women and girls
As well as focussing the Foundation’s support around its new core priorities, I am very pleased that our support is now balanced between causes in the UK and internationally. Across all three areas, the Foundation has made important new investments.
The Report sets out key highlights for the year, including:
• The Foundation, alongside the CareTech Foundation, has partnered with the British Asian Trust to invest in a £1million programme by which to deliver a step change in mental health and wellbeing provision in Pakistan. In just the first year of the programme, some 63,000 individuals have benefitted from the programme;
• The Foundation was delighted to launch its new flagship university scholarship programme earlier this year. The Sheikh Family Scholarship will provide graduate and undergraduate scholarships to Muslim students from poor backgrounds, and preferably to first-generation university students, at St Anne’s College Oxford University, Cambridge University, Warwick University, City University and the Open University at Cambridge Muslim College.
• The Foundation awarded a three-year grant to the Contact Hostel in Manchester to support their work in supporting homeless and vulnerable young women in Manchester.
In addition to these exciting new developments, the trustees have been particularly pleased with the new Hardship Grant scheme, providing much-needed small grants to individuals facing significant hardship. In this first year of operation, the Foundation was able to provide grants to 40 individuals totalling £125,000; the majority of grants were for less than £2,000.
Reflecting on the Foundation’s work ahead, Chairman Haroon Sheikh stated:
“I am very pleased that the trustees have settled upon a powerful set of new strategic priorities in order that the Foundation can make long-term systemic contributions to challenges here in the UK and overseas. We know that a key strength of the Foundation is the personal commitment and engagement of the trustees – and indeed of our wider families and stakeholders. I am grateful to my colleague trustees and to those who advise us for their hard work over the last year. I hope that, like me, they are excited about the year to come, which promises to see a significant step forward for our work.”
The report is available to download COS04 COSARAF Annual Report 2018 19 Final.
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