Margaret Giffen Charitable Trust

The Margaret Giffen Charitable Trust is a grant-making foundation dedicated to alleviating poverty, vulnerability, and disadvantage through support for charities aiding children, young people, elderly individuals, and other marginalized groups, alongside animal welfare initiatives. Its core values emphasize responsive local action, direct practical benefit to those in greatest need, voluntary community efforts, and prevention of hardship via empowerment and inclusion. Funding decisions prioritize demonstrable public benefit, grassroots voluntary action, and sustained wellbeing, believing change arises from tangible interventions like material aid, volunteer empowerment, and community-led services fostering resilience among families, youth, and seniors.

It funds poverty alleviation through food banks, starter packs, and essentials for mothers and families facing cost of living crises and food insecurity; child and youth welfare via volunteer training for vulnerable families, youth drama projects, after-school activities, and empowerment-based learning; elderly care including support for isolation, mental health counselling, and physical wellbeing services; adult literacy programs tackling educational barriers; inclusive arts access and creative activities promoting emotional regulation and social inclusion; mental and physical health support encompassing cancer care, therapeutic interventions, and community outreach; family support for crisis prevention, carer respite, and culturally-specific provisions; and animal welfare, especially equine rescue overlapping with vulnerable human beneficiaries. Interventions include direct service delivery, peer support groups, befriending, practical material aid, volunteer supervision, and holistic projects addressing complex needs like social isolation, family breakdown risks, and youth exclusion in urban and rural settings.

Exclusions encompass non-charitable purposes and personal benefits, with rare support for national entities lacking local ties. Priorities target Northamptonshire's disadvantaged communities—households in poverty, isolated elderly residents, children and young people at risk, families caring for dependents, and ethnic minority groups—favoring grassroots organizations and established charities delivering preventative, person-centred, community-led aid. Distinctive for deep regional localism, mission continuity, blend of human and animal welfare, and emphasis on long-term impact through practical, inclusive grassroots interventions over siloed or short-term projects.