Duke of Edinburgh Supports Dinner for Local Berkshire Philanthropists

His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh was present at a dinner at Frogmore House, the royal residence in Windsor Home Park, in support of the Berkshire Community Foundation’s £2Million campaign.

Forty guests, including Keith Evans, Chief Executive Panasonic UK, the Foundation’s patron, John Madejski, Chairman of Reading FC, Norman Grundon Chairman of Grundon Ltd and many other distinguished guests, attended. This unique occasion sought to highlight the startling degree of need in the Royal County and the role of the Foundation in providing funding to the small voluntary groups which add so much to the cohesion of our local community.

Prince Philip began the event by presenting 2 plaques. The first was to Jeff Pulsford, Chief Executive of Goodman which has supported the Foundation since 1998. The second was to John Nike, Chairman of Nike Group of Companies a supporter of the Foundation since 1994. John Nike describes the Foundation as “A most effective method of delivering support to local charities”.

In his remarks welcoming the guests, Prince Philip said that, “I recognise the very real needs in our County and the requirement to address them……. and I suggest that we should all look more often at the needs in our own community.” He then commended to all “…the Berkshire Community Foundation for its invaluable support for the voluntary groups addressing local needs”

In launching the campaign as President of the Berkshire Foundation, the recently retired Lord Lieutenant, Sir Philip Wroughton, echoed those sentiments and highlighted Foundation’s success in having made a total of over £5million in grants since 1985. Despite this he stressed that there had recently been an exponential increase in demand for BCF’s grants from local groups. In response to this increase, Sir Philip spoke of the Foundation’s campaign to raise a further £2million and urged the audience to “….help in creating an ethos in the county of a community that helps itself and encouraging more local giving for local need”. The Foundation has already raised £408,000 towards this target but there is still a way to go!

This dinner is just the start of a programme of initiatives aimed at encouraging Berkshire’s businesses and individual residents to support their local county through the Berkshire Community Foundation.