John’s story: celebrating his Somerset family through giving

John set up The Pinniger Fund with SCF in 2020 in memory of his parents and favourite grandparents.  His mother was born in Glastonbury and his London-born father collected historic maps of the county, plus his grandparents lived and worked in Somerset. 

John spent many happy times visiting his grandparents, who lived in Bath when he was growing up. He wanted to honour their memory through giving back to the communities where his grandparents had done so much. The Pinniger Fund focuses on relieving poverty, improving health and wellbeing and reducing loneliness and isolation. It’s focused on the area his grandfather worked.  John, who now lives in West Yorkshire, is passionate about helping people who are struggling in their lives, especially helping people affected by homelessness.  

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“My grandfather was the doctor for Glastonbury, Street, Shepton and a large area around there for a long time during the War until 1963, when he retired and moved to Bath. However, he kept his links with the area as he was a doctor for the Bath and West Show for many years after that. This encouraged my family to visit it every year.    

I have so many great memories of going to the Bath and West Show and so many more farming or animal related ones. It was great learning for a child born and brought up in London. My grandfather used to spend hours and hours with me when we stayed with him, playing and keeping me amused. 

I was looking for a way to use some of the inheritance from my parents in a way that would allow me to focus the money towards small charities dedicated to key areas of need that I cared about.    

While working with charities local to me, I learnt about Community Foundations and what they do. As I wanted to focus money towards the Glastonbury area, because of my family connection, I decided to approach Somerset Community Foundation. 

I talked to the team about the options open to me through SCF and how the whole process works.  It was a great decision to go with SCF. They allowed me to do exactly what I wanted with very little administrative work and give me easy access to suitable and vetted charities – much more than I could have done myself. 

Working with the SCF team is always easy and informal which is what I want. I know there’s a high degree of professionalism and diligence behind that, ensuring that my inheritance is used ethically and as I agreed. 

SCF also produce very informative research papers on key areas of need in Somerset and hold video discussions with charities. All this provides me with great insight to help inform me about what is happening, some of which I can apply locally to me as well.” 

Impact Story details

Location:Glastonbury & Street
Theme:General Charitable Purposes

Funding Programme:Forever Fund