Rooted in the past, giving for the future
Barbara Browse believes doing good is a way of life. Through her Charitable Trust, she champions nature, science, and access — with her latest gift restoring Kew Gardens’ Palm House.
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Despite being supposedly ‘retired’, Rosie and Marie were kept busy with caring responsibilities and community activities, when a family inheritance placed them in a new and unfamiliar position — one that felt at odds with their modest upbringing and lifestyle. While deeply aware of their privilege, they also felt a heavy sense of responsibility, which at times became overwhelming.
They had supported various causes and organisations in the past, but when it came to donating larger sums, they were unsure where or how to start.
"We decided we wanted to do something while we were still alive to see the outcomes, rather than just leave it in a will, but felt overwhelmed with uncertainty as to how to make it happen.”
The desire to ‘give something back’ and have a positive impact on other people’s lives became their guiding force."
Now retired, they had both spent their lives in creative professions, Marie as a photographer and Rosie as a musician and woodwind teacher; and together running arts and music projects in communities across London. They were passionate about the power of arts to broaden people’s horizons and open up new skills and build confidence. They had witnessed first-hand its transformative effect on people from all walks of life and had experienced those benefits personally.
Through our research, we identified several local charities that combined Rosie and Marie’s passions for art and music with their values of community and inclusivity. They were particularly inspired by organisations making the arts accessible to young people and people in under-privileged communities.
Visiting their chosen charities in person was essential. Experiencing their ethos first-hand helped to reignite a sense of familiarity and excitement. Rosie and Marie saw that the kind of transformative work they had once been part of was still taking place in communities today, and through their giving, they could help it reach even more people in future.
For Rosie and Marie, giving has become a way to reconnect with their past and channel their experiences into meaningful support. Through donations they are making to seven local charities, they are helping more people access life-changing opportunities similar to those they have seen and experienced.
Over the course of our work with them, they have shifted from a feeling of responsibility that felt insurmountable towards finding purpose through their giving, living out their values of inclusivity and community in the process.
"It took us a long time to take this step. We felt rather guarded about discussing our personal financial affairs with strangers, charitable or not. But the thought of this money sitting there, which could be doing something to benefit others, was eating away at us. We had always lived a simple life and felt that we had enough to live on and food to eat. Now we had this new opportunity to perhaps help others along the way, but there were so many areas in need of support, where to begin?
"We both feel that a burden has been lifted. We were in desperate need of the right kind of guidance on how best to distribute our charity funding and were very grateful to CAF for providing the right kind of support and guidance in an area which we were so unfamiliar with.
"We are now looking forward to hearing how the charities we have made donations to have benefitted, with a view to potential further support to these or other areas of need in the future."
Rosie and Marie’s Charitable Trust allows them to give back and ensure that others have access to the same opportunities that they themselves have benefited from. With advisory support from CAF, they’ve been able to identify organisations that align best with their values.
“In the end CAF made the whole experience very positive and reassuring. The meetings were warm and unrushed. Our advisers were sympathetic and understanding of our qualms and managed to interpret our garbled ideas into a plan for giving. They did the research and acted as an interface between us and the charities, which made the whole process so much easier and more achievable.”
Marie adds: “I just wanted to pass that on to you, so that someone somewhere understands that if you are one day — through chance — fortunate enough to be given the opportunity (if your own security and life takes a turn for the better), then please remember those who would be best served by some help and support. More importantly, give them some hope for the future. Today, charities in all their forms need support more than ever before — and we need them, as a well-rounded society, in order to survive.”
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Barbara Browse believes doing good is a way of life. Through her Charitable Trust, she champions nature, science, and access — with her latest gift restoring Kew Gardens’ Palm House.
Trevor Dickey used his charitable giving to break the cycle of female poverty for beekeepers in Burkina Faso.
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