WCIT CHARITY REVIEW
CHAIR’S STATEMENT
03
Your generosity in time and money has made 2018
an outstanding year for the WCIT Charity
Jo Connell OBE DL, Chair, WCIT Charity
Since 2012, we
have given
away well over
a million pounds
in grants, which
is a fantastic
sum
Thanks to your outstanding generosity, our
income in 2018 was £148,000. This enabled us
to make grants of more than £250,000 for the
third consecutive year, with the difference
being made up from our Special Projects
Fund. More details of our income and grants
are on pages five and seven.
WCIT Charity IT Award 2018
76 charities applied for the WCIT Charity IT
Award; as a result, we made two £300,000
grants to CALM and Missing People, each of
which is developing AI systems. In addition,
funding is being provided to WCIT’s AI
Learning Exchange to enable learning and
best practice for developing AI systems to be
established and shared across the charity
sector: learn the latest on these projects
over the page.
Past achievements
By the time you receive this, I shall have
retired from the chairmanship of the Charity,
which I have held since 2012. Since then, your
donations and the events you have organised
have raised a magnificent total of £760,273.
I am particularly proud that, during my time,
we started our Continuous Committed Giving
(CCG) scheme, which, this year, will have
raised just short of £100,000.
Your generosity in time and money has
enabled us to support many charities and
not-for-profit organisations. Since 2012, we
have given away well over a million pounds
in grants, which is a fantastic sum; our
model of combining the passion, commitment
and valuable time of our volunteers with
these financial grants ensures that our
impact is multiplied.
So I want to say thank you to all of you for
this fantastic support, and to ask you to
continue with your generosity. My final plea,
however, is to those members who are still
not participating in CCG: imagine what more
we could do if you were to join us.
It has been an enormous privilege to have been
Chair of your Charity and to see first-hand the
significant impact that your generosity has
had on those living in challenging
circumstances. I wish Dr Stefan Fafinski every
success as he takes over as Chair. I am
confident that under his stewardship, and
with your continued generosity, WCIT Charity
will go on to even greater things.
Jo Connell OBE DL
Chair, WCIT Charity