Beacon is a charitable organisation set up to encourage individual contributions to charitable and social causes and to celebrate and showcase best practice in giving.

Beacon awards annual prizes to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to charitable causes or to organisations that benefit the public.

An overall winner will be selected every year who will be given a cash award, invested in an innovative way by the winner in a charity of their choice.

Beacon believes that by highlighting the achievements of the prize winners and showcasing innovation and best practice in philanthropy, others will be inspired and encouraged to make their own contribution.

The Trustees of Beacon are committed to the Beacon goal of increasing the impact and extent of UK philanthropy. They have been working hard to develop a new approach for Beacon which builds on its considerable achievements and allows them to enrich and extend the work of the Fellowship.

The trustees have agreed a new way of working with Community Foundation Network (CFN) as from 1 April 2009. CFN is a registered charity committed to developing philanthropy particularly at a local community level.

The Beacon Fellowship network and awards will retain their separate identity and will be re-energised by association with community foundations, their regional and national events and their involvement in developing philanthropic practice, research and lobbying on policy.

We will be consulting Beacon Fellows over the next few months with a view to boosting the ‘network’ aspects of the fellowship. Later this year we will announce the next set of Beacon awards to be awarded in 2010.

For more information please keep your eye on this website.

Many thanks for your continued support
Community Foundation Network and The Beacon Team

18 November 2008 NEWHAM COMMUNITY HERO IS OVERALL WINNER OF £30,000 BEACON PRIZE 2008 Kevin Jenkins OBE has been awarded the prestigious annual £30k Beacon Prize for his work with the children and young people of Newham. Kevin co-founded Community Links in 1977 whilst still at school. This Children and Youth Programme has grown from four projects that helped 150 children and young people to a £5million budget supporting 3,000 individuals aged 2–24 years every week.

08 May 2008 BEACON PHILANTHROPY IN THE CITY FORUM 2008 The 2nd annual Philanthropy in City Forum took place on 8 May 2008 from 5:30-8:30pm, with this year’s Forum is entitled ‘Why Does Philanthropy Make Business Sense?’ Speakers included 2007 Beacon Prize Winner Michael Spencer (CEO, ICAP), Alec Reed CBE (Founder, Reed Recruitment) and Louisa Mitchell (Research Director, Policy Exchange). The Forum was chaired by Dr Salvatore LaSpada (Chief Executive, Institute for Philanthropy).