Governance and Management

Bernicia Foundation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Bernicia Group. It is governed by a Board of four voluntary trustees, who meet tri-annually; twice to determine the allocation of grants, and once to reflect on progress against the objectives, measures and targets of grant allocations.

The Foundation doesn’t directly employ any staff, although it is supported by lead officers from The Bernicia Group, who provide direction and governance assistance to ensure it runs effectively and efficiently. The Trustees are further supported by CFTWN, who assess and monitor applications, ensuring the integrity of these and that delivery of objectives remains in line with funding criteria and good practice.

Their services include:

• Due diligence checks on all eligible applications (those failing due diligence are not assessed).
• Assessments of the remaining applications against the agreed criteria and timetable, for decision at The Bernicia Foundation trustee meeting.
• Providing the panel with assessments of the applications categorised as high, medium and low priority, plus recommended rejections and their reasons.
• Attendance at panel meeting to provide insight into the assessment and answer any queries on the organisations, their applications and their assessment.
• Collecting completed monitoring forms from successful beneficiaries to ensure grants have been spent in line with terms and conditions and alerting The Bernicia Foundation of any issues if they arise.
• Promotion of the fund if required.

Having secured formal charitable status in 2020, the Charity Governance Code for smaller charities has been adopted to ensure good governance is practised across The Foundation’s activities.