The Steve Morgan Foundation funds new Maggie’s cancer support centre

Planning permission has been granted for a new cancer support centre in North Wales, which will be completely commissioned, designed and funded by the Steve Morgan Foundation and built in the grounds of Glan Clwyd Hospital in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire.

The centre will provide free practical, psychological and emotional support for people with cancer, as well as their family and friends, from across the whole region – including Bangor and Wrexham.

North Wales sees 4,800 people newly diagnosed with cancer every year. It is hoped the centre will open in 2025.

Liam Eaglestone, CEO of the Steve Morgan Foundation, said:

“We are delighted to be helping Maggie’s bring its vital cancer support to the people of North Wales, ensuring they will have the warm, welcoming and free expert support of a Maggie’s centre right on their doorstep.

“Our collaboration with Maggie’s is one of the strongest examples of our philosophy of ‘disruptive philanthropy’. It highlights the Foundation’s ability to ‘give well’, by harnessing our expertise, practical support and commercial experience to maximise the impact of our financial support.”

Dame Laura Lee, Chief Executive at Maggie’s said:

“We are delighted to have been granted planning permission for our centre in North Wales.

“Without the Steve Morgan Foundation’s incredibly generous support in commissioning, designing, building and funding we wouldn’t have been able to bring Maggie’s to North Wales and for that I am so grateful.

“The Steve Morgan Foundation has committed to building three new Maggie’s centres – including the one in North Wales – which is a truly phenomenal act of philanthropy.

“I am greatly looking forward to working closely once again with the Steve Morgan Foundation, and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, to ensure the people of North Wales have the support which has already been making such a difference to people’s lives in other parts of Wales for 12 years.”

The Steve Morgan Foundation provided £3m to build the centre in North Wales and has already commissioned, designed, built and funded Maggie’s Wirral, which officially opened in the grounds of Clatterbridge Cancer Centre in September 2021.

In 2022 it received 18,640 visits, including 11,025 people with cancer and 5,816 carers.

A third Maggie’s centre in Liverpool, to be built within the grounds of the New Royal Liverpool Hospital next to the new Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, is also in the development stages thanks to the Steve Morgan Foundation.

Glan Clwyd Hospital is managed by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) and is home of the North Wales Cancer Treatment Centre.

Adele Gittoes, BCUHB’s Interim Executive Director of Operations, added:

“I am delighted planning permission has been granted for this really important development. Working alongside the North Wales Cancer Treatment Centre, also based at Glan Clwyd Hospital, this will extend and enhance the support for people with cancer and their families.

“I also want to give my thanks to the Steve Morgan Foundation for its generous funding of what I’m sure will be a fabulous and highly valued facility.”

Steve Morgan Foundation commits to transparent giving

At the Steve Morgan Foundation, we believe in ‘giving money away well’ by building partnerships and supporting charities doing excellent work. We also believe in openness and honesty about the grants that we award and improving grant making across the UK. This is why we publish open grants data through 360Giving and have become an IVAR Flexible Funder.

360Giving

The aim of 360Giving is for more money to go to where it is needed most to support communities and good causes through a more informed understanding of the grant making picture. The Steve Morgan Foundation shares this view and so we have joined the UK’s leading funders in making our grants data open through the 360Giving Data Standard, helping to map and improve grant making across the UK.

The 360Giving Data Standard helps UK funders to publish their grants data in an open, standardised way so that people can better understand and use the data to improve charitable giving. Through 360Giving, we are able to share information on who, where and what we fund in a way that others can access for free. You can view all of our awarded grants since April 2020 here.

Since it was founded in 2015, more than 250 funders have published over 850,000 grants and more than 40,000 people a year access and use the data.

IVAR Flexible Funder

The Steve Morgan Foundation works hard to adopt the principles of open and trusting grant making, as set out by IVAR and London Funders. They are calling on funders to adopt simpler, more flexible practices that make life easier for those they fund.

We are one of over 100 funders who have signed up to the eight commitments and joined a community with other funders and charities to improve practice together. The eight commitments are:

Don’t waste time – funders will be open, transparent and clear about all of their priorities, requirements and exclusions.
Ask relevant questions – funders will test their application forms to ensure clarity, relevance and avoid repetition, only collecting information that genuinely informs a funding decision.
Accept risk – funders will clearly explain how risk is assessed and be realistic about how much assurance applicants can provide.
Act with urgency – funders will aim to make decisions as quickly as possible by publishing and sticking to timeframes to ensure they work at a pace that meets the needs of applicants.
Be open – funders will provide feedback, including reasons for rejections. They will analyse and share relevant data, including publishing success rates.
Enable flexibility – funders will aim to give unrestricted funding; where they can’t (or are a specialist funder), they will ensure their funding is as flexible as possible.
Communicate with purpose – a funders contact is positive and purposeful. They will be realistic about their time commitments.
Be proportionate – funders will ensure that their formal reporting requirements are well understood, proportionate and meaningful.

You can see who else has signed up and read more about these eight commitments on IVAR’s website: www.ivar.org.uk/flexible-funders.

We hope that our commitment to transparent giving will encourage more grant makers to adopt these standards and practices to improve the overall practice of grant-making across the UK.

Please click here for more information about our grants and types of funding.

Together Type 1: celebrating one year of the SMF-funded programme

The pioneering programme for young people with type 1 diabetes, funded by The Steve Morgan Foundation, marked its first anniversary with a celebration event and a new name. Our Lives, Our Choices, Our Voices is now called Together Type 1.

The Together Type 1 programme launched in September 2022 in partnership with Diabetes UK with £5 million donated by the Steve Morgan Foundation – one of our largest single grants awarded. The purpose is to bring young people with type 1 diabetes together through the delivery of a UK-wide peer support programme as they transition to adulthood.

Run by Diabetes UK, the initiative is an ambitious youth-led programme on a mission to tackle feelings of isolation and loneliness in children and young people aged 11 to 25 living with type 1 diabetes. It will give young people the confidence to manage their diabetes and relationships with healthcare professionals in the way that works best for them. It also creates a community where injecting insulin, counting carbs, and juggling the ups and downs of diabetes is the norm. And where young people can connect with others who know what living with the condition is really like, swap stories, and learn new skills along the way.

The new name ‘Together Type 1’ better reflects the purpose of the initiative – to emphasise collectiveness specifically for people with the type 1 condition (and is a little less of a mouthful to say!)

Celebrating with our Young Leaders

On 30 September a celebration event was held in Manchester with the programme’s Young Leaders to reflect on progress and successes and plans for the next few years. This national gathering saw the official launch of the new Together Type 1 brand, hosted practical workshops for our Young Leaders covering social media content creation, campaigning and coaching, as well as provided opportunities to connect and make new friends.

Liam Eaglestone, CEO of the Steve Morgan Foundation, attended the event:

“The first national gathering for Together Type 1 was an inspirational day – hearing directly from young leaders and youth workers about the impact of the programme has fully reaffirmed the Steve Morgan Foundation commitment to supporting young people and young adults with type 1 diabetes. We are very much looking forward to seeing how the programme grows and develops to support more and more young people in the coming years”.

Cradle to Career launches across Liverpool City Region

The pioneering place-based change programme, initiated and funded by the Steve Morgan Foundation is set to expand, with Mayor Steve Rotheram granting an additional £5.25m to tackle inequalities faced by families in the Liverpool City Region.

The expansion of the Cradle to Career programme was announced at a prestigious event at the House of Lords on Tuesday, September 19, where Steve Morgan addressed the guests and highlighted the impact the programme has had to date. This was followed by two events in the Liverpool City Region attended by the Mayor, Steve Rotheram on Thursday, September 28.

Cradle to Career was launched by the Steve Morgan Foundation in North Birkenhead in 2021 in partnership with Wirral Council and working alongside SHINE, an education charity and grant giver, and lead delivery partner Right to Succeed, a charity specialising in place-based change approaches. Funding provided by the Foundation to date totals £4.9 million, which includes a grant of £2.5 million to support the regional expansion.

**Liverpool City Region Mayor, Steve Rotheram speaking at one of the events**

Delivered by Right to Succeed, Cradle to Career puts the people of the Liverpool City Region at the heart of education, services and decision-making. Following discovery phases in Halton and Knowsley, bespoke programmes are being developed for communities in Halton Lea and Northwood. These will focus on supporting vulnerable learners; reducing the number of post-16 school leavers not in education, employment or training; developing robust facilities and activities for all; and creating a family support hub to support social, emotional and mental wellbeing in the community.

Further discovery phases are currently underway in Sefton and St Helens, with a vision to continue expansion across all six boroughs of the Liverpool City Region.

Commenting on the expansion of Cradle to Career, Steve Morgan CBE, said:

“We are incredibly excited to be taking this powerful partnership across the breadth of the Liverpool City Region.

“Good philanthropy and great partnerships are about bringing everyone together to deliver long-lasting and effective change, and Cradle to Career is a true exemplar of this; empowering communities, philanthropy and the public sector to work towards a shared vision to improve the lives of young people and their families.

“The Steve Morgan Foundation is involved in hundreds of initiatives not only in Merseyside but across the country but the impact of Cradle to Career is one of our most successful interventions and its achievements cannot be underestimated.

“In just two years, through Cradle to Career, the reading age for more than 1,600 children has improved exponentially; the number of young people at risk of being taken into care has significantly reduced, and Ofsted and the CQC are using the Cradle to Career programme as an example of best practice for family support.

“It is my hope that other cities and other regions in the UK will consider following suit by doing things differently and putting communities in control of their destinies.”

Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said:

“It is a gross injustice that children’s whole lives are mapped out before they ever leave the maternity unit; a postcode lottery dictating their bank balance, the food they can afford, the diseases they’re likely to develop, the quality of the air they will breathe and how long they will live.

“Addressing that imbalance is central to my politics. Cradle to Career is a radical, bespoke approach that works with the communities to identify local issues – and empowers them to come up with the solutions.

“Its results in North Birkenhead have been so impressive that we are investing more than £5m to roll it out across the rest of the region. Too many kids in our region have been held back, not by a lack of talent but a lack of opportunity – but I’m working to put that right.”

CEO of Right to Succeed, Graeme Duncan added:

“We are delighted that the Combined Authority has decided to fund the roll out of collective impact programmes across the Liverpool City Region, helping to realise our vision that every child can thrive from Cradle to Career.

“Our experience working in North Birkenhead on the Cradle to Career programme over the last three years has shown that by putting the decision-making power in the hands of the community and bringing people together around shared aims, you can accelerate the pace of change for children and young people.

“By rolling this out across the region, the Combined Authority is taking the lead, investing in a new approach that will see sustained change and improved outcomes for more children and young people.”

Visit the website for Cradle to Career North Birkenhead.