Spotlight on Anna Smith, CEO of Quartet Community Foundation

Occasionally we like to shine the spotlight on our members, and in this case one of the members of the Bristol Initiative. We sat down with Anna Smith, CEO of Quartet Community Foundation to talk about their work and their relationship with the Bristol Initiative.

Tell us about your role – what do you have responsibility for? What does a typical day look like?

I am the CEO of Quartet Community Foundation. Quartet exists to make the West of England a better, fairer place for everyone, to encourage local giving to benefit the most disadvantaged communities of Bristol, BANES, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. I am responsible for leading on strategy, connecting with businesses, potential and existing partners and for building trusting relationships with donors and understanding communities, so that Quartet can distribute to all the communities who need it. I have run front line charitable services for over 15 years in the west, offering support to women experiencing domestic abuse, identifying system change needs for disadvantaged communities, supporting people who need help with their drug and alcohol use and supporting women who street sex work. My belief in the excellent, vital and expert work of the sector has never wavered in my lifelong career working in a charity. It is important that Quartet remains responsive to community needs and understands local communities, so I visit organisations across our region as regularly as I can. A typical day might include contributing to a strategic meeting about sector needs, I was at one yesterday about Housing and Communities, meeting with a potential or existing donor, visiting one of the organisations we fund, to hear about their challenges and the impact of our funding or an internal meeting with staff about progressing our equality, diversity and inclusion work or carbon footprint reduction. I work between Bristol and Bath where we have offices, but also across South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.

What does your organisation do? Why do you like working for them? 

Quartet’s objective is to enable individuals and businesses to support local charitable organisations, matching their donations with trusted organisations who offer quality services to the most disadvantaged communities in our area. Thanks to our generous donors, we have been able to give out in the region of £5 million per year, over the last two years, to thousands of small local charitable groups providing vital support within their communities. We have been around for 37 years and are proud to have just reached an overall giving total during our existence of £80 million. Quartet’s funding has impact across a wide range of local needs, helping refugee groups finding their voice, supporting a Food Bank in Bath, work experience in a studio for young people to produce a radio show, supporting organisations to provide affordable, accessible counselling, to support for people to get essential therapies for MS not available on the NHS. This type of support is often funded through our Express Grant fund.  We also run the Resilience Fund. This fund is about building sustainability for organisations to build capacity, a partnership, or to find the space to consider growth.  

The things I love about my job are bringing philanthropists together with the needs of communities and hearing about the impact of the support we give, the variety of my days and working across a region. The skills and commitment of the staff and the board coupled with seeing services provide genuine support, fire my passion for the sector. I also love building partnerships and connecting with people who are making difference in their community. I manage a team of 23 people and aim to connect widely across Bristol and our region, to reach communities, particularly underserved communities and raise the profile of philanthropy and its benefits to connect their vital work with the objectives of our donors.

Why have you joined the Bristol Initiative?

To be connected with people in the city. To hear what is going on, about future developments, for all sectors and to keep those not engaged in frontline services informed about what the voluntary and community sector is experiencing. Their events are genuinely engaging and relevant; I enjoyed the Mayoral hustings and being connected with the development of Temple Quarter. As many will know, the combination of austerity measures and cuts to services have hit our communities harshly.  Alongside an increase in NI payments and minimum wage, the voluntary sector has been greatly impacted, so it’s about getting that message out to those who can influence and help. On top of that there are some great people at the Bristol Initiative who I have known professionally for a while, so it is a pleasure to go to events. 

What are the key agendas that you’re looking forward to getting involved with? 

We have an exciting opportunity, recently launched, which uses a generous donation by the Scantlebury Estate to benefit from 50% matched giving on donations. Open to both new and existing donors, you can increase the impact of your donation by 50% (terms apply), and if you are eligible, you can still claim Gift Aid on any donation made. Quartet has carefully built up an endowment fund, which we invest to create a pot of money to give sustainably to communities; over the last two years this has amounted to £5 million a year across our region. The West of England needs this money more than ever before; the voluntary sector provides such a vital service to people experiencing inequality and fills a gap not offered by state. Often the services offered by charities, prevent the cost of crisis interventions by the NHS, housing, child protection and other statutory services. The organisations that support them have been hit by the increase in NI and the cost of living means we need we are more challenged in our aim of offering realistic wages to the skilled and passionate individuals who work for us. If you know someone (an individual or a business) you think is interested in philanthropy and supporting their community and having a real impact on people’s lives, please ask them to talk to us and to take a look at the challenge here.

Hurry while stocks last!

Where is your favourite place to visit in Bristol?

Definitely the Bristol Beacon. What a fabulous place; it is like a Tudor theatre, the sound quality is great and it’s the right size to get up front and see the band you love or step back and watch, without them being a speck in the horizon. I saw Max Cooper there recently with my brother and it blew my mind. Ezra Collective with friends were also amazing. I also saw an orchestra play concertos at an event for Carers Week, which was beautiful, a tranquil point in an otherwise slightly frantic week!

If you'd like to follow Anna on social media you can do so on Linkedin here, and you can find out more about Quartet Community Foundation on their website, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Also, if you are a member of The Bristol Initiative and would like to be featured in a blog just like this one then you can get in touch with me.