Church House Investment Management, based in Sherborne and London, has made a contribution to the community foundation’s running costs to assist it in supporting grass roots groups working across the county.

The 21-year-old foundation has awarded more than £1.2 million in grants to groups over the past year and is in the midst of a record-breaking Surviving Winter campaign that has raised £100,000 to help keep older people living in fuel poverty warm.

It works with individual donors, trusts, councils and other statutory bodies to secure funding for the county’s voluntary groups. Its Dorset Coronavirus Community Fund has already raised more than £900,000.

Church House Client Director Paul Zoltowski said the company has been moved by the plight of the county in the pandemic and wanted to help.

“We have a strong long-term relationship with the community foundation through our investment advice as well as our support of its events where we have passed on some insight on best practice in investing to smaller charities,” he said.

“We’ve been very fortunate in that we are in a relatively resilient industry but we realise for many others that isn’t the case and we wanted to do something to support the community.”

He said working closely with the community foundation has made it realise how important its work is. “No one knows the county’s voluntary sector better than Dorset Community Foundation and after Covid its role is even more vital,” he said. “We feel that supporting it by giving it the means to continue its work is a very effective way of helping the wider community.”

Grant Robson, Director of Dorset Community Foundation said: “We’ve always been very thankful for the steadfast help we receive from Church House and this is just another example of how it gives back to the community.

“We are a small team and have worked incredibly hard to bring money into the county and then get it out to the amazing groups who make such a difference to people’s lives. This contribution will help us continue to do that.”

Find out more about Church House at here.