The Port Community Fund comprises of a group of local businesses associated with the Port of Felixstowe, coming together to create a joint approach to raising funds for the purpose of charitable giving locally.
A panel of the Fund’s members meet bi-annually to award grants to charities and good causes working in deprived areas of Felixstowe, the Trimleys, Ipswich and the surrounding areas, with the primary aim of improving the quality of people’s lives. Since being establised in 2008, the Fund has supported some particularly concentrated areas of need in the community.
Recently funded groups include:
- Breast Friends – Menopause Kits for Breast Cancer Survivors
- Inspire Counselling – Subsidised counselling sessions
- Lighthouse Women’s Aid – Targeting Felixstowe
- Neurodelicious – Workshops for neurodivergent ex-offenders
- Old Felixstowe Top up Shop
- Suffolk Mind – Counselling support for Felixstowe and the Trimleys
- The Compass – Supporting staff costs
- Walton Parish Nursing – No labels group
- Whitton Youth Partnership – School Holiday Activities.
Who can apply?
Any organisation or group with a charitable purpose may apply, provided it has a formal structure which allows for monitoring of its activities to feedback to the Fund. The Fund will consider applications from voluntary and community groups in Felixstowe, Ipswich and the surrounding areas that support the local community.
Please visit our guidelines page for more information.
The fund is open for applications twice a year and upcoming dates and further criteria can be found here.
Where and why it began
The Port Community Fund was created in 2008 by 12 local shipping and transport businesses, to help co-ordinate their charitable giving to causes close to home. The Fund established a unique mechanism for companies working within a shared industry to give back to their local communities in Suffolk collaboratively.
The Fund provides the opportunity for its members to work in partnership and:
- Increase the effectiveness of their charitable giving
- Achieve greater publicity
- Reduce the administrative cost associated with giving
- Successfully raise far larger funds collectively
- Build close and more supportive relations with the local community
- Help charities and local good causes in and around Felixstowe and Ipswich.
Our members:
Port of Felixstowe (PFL) (member of Hutchinson Port Holdings (HPH) group
Grange Shipping
Harwich Haven Authority
Freightliner Group Ltd
Maritime Transport
Trinity College
If your organisation has a presence in or around the port and would like to become a member, please contact us on [email protected] clearly marking your email as Port Community Fund membership.