There are currently over 100 active funds at the Foundation. Each one reflects our donor’s values, personal preferences and the degree to which they want to be involved in grant recommendations.

A donor advised fund is a very personal approach to giving as it allows a business or individual to make grants over time to causes they care deeply about.

 Hunter Davies OBE,  established his donor advised fund with the Foundation in 2012. It was originally created to award three annual bursaries of £1,000 each to help people to write and publish non-fiction books.

Hunter, who is also founder of the annual Lakeland Book of the Year Awards said: “It really came out of the success of the awards. I noticed that more and more of the entries were coming from amateur first time authors and I wanted to support anyone financially, whether it was paying for their research time, writing time or towards publishing their book.”

The fund has since gone on to support young writers, awarding £1,000 to a student at Appleby Grammar School. It has also supported a school library appeal and helped finance a parish magazine.

Hunter continues: “I have always felt grateful to Cumbria for giving myself and my wife a free education. Partly because of all that we ended up making a living from writing. Two years ago I thought I would give something back to the county. Cumbria Community Foundation does all the hard work. I just sit back and have a warm glow.”

Andy Beeforth, CEO of the Foundation said: “Establishing a donor advised fund is simple. A donation is made and the money is held in a fund named by the donor, such as the Hunter Davies Fund. The donor can recommend grants from the fund at any time.

“By using Cumbria Community Foundation’s expertise and community knowledge, we can help plan or expand our donors grant making.”