Chair recognised for services to charity and philanthropy in Honours List

The London Community Foundation is delighted that Russell Prior OBE has been recognised for his services to charity and philanthropy. Russell became the Chair of The London Community Foundation (LCF) in December 2019, and he has led the organisation with skill and expertise, ensuring the organisation has fulfilled its crucial role in funding and supporting London’s grass roots charity sector. During his time as Chair the organisation has distributed over £65m to tackle some of London’s most pernicious issues.

Highlights during this period have included:

• The Covid-19 emergency response from LCF distributed £13.4m to over 1,000 charities,
• The Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime funded LCF to grant £6.1m to organisations tackling Violence Against Woman & Girls,
• A cost-of-living campaign from LCF called Together for London gave grants totalling £2.2m to 216 organisations,
• Save London Lives was set up by LCF to tackle youth violence and supported 57 organisations through £2.1m of funding,
• LCF also set up collaborative funds to allow donors to create collective impact called the Youth Futures Fund and the Women's Fund for London,
• LCF has increasingly focussed on flexible funding, multi-year grants, providing organisational development and co-designed funds.

Everyone involved in The London Community Foundation is delighted that Russell’s leadership has been recognised with an OBE in His Majesty The King's Birthday Honours. His commitment to ensure that we could tackle some of the most entrenched issues in London’s communities has been incredible. Russell has been our chair since December 2019 and he has steered us through the perilous COVID waters, where we rose to the challenge distributing £13.4m to community organisations across London, through our emergency campaign. It is testament to Russell’s leadership that we’ve given out over £65m, through over 4,000 grants, whist he has been our chair, and we continue to move from strength to strength. - Paul Buchanan MBE, CEO, The London Community Foundation