The Roger De Haan Charitable Trust was established in 1978 by Roger De Haan, former Chairman of Saga Group, and his late father Sidney, Saga’s founder. The Trust’s original aim was to support charities and community groups in and around the Folkestone area, where most of Saga’s employees were based.
Today, the Trust continues to offer financial support to a variety of charities and community organisations, with donations that can vary from as little as £100 for small community projects to hundreds of thousands of pounds or even more for capital projects. In many cases the Trust is able to offer considerable support in the form of advice and professional expertise, to enable grant applicants to set about realising and managing their projects and ambitions in the most practical and cost effective manner.
The largest single investment of the Trust is in the regeneration of Folkestone’s old town area, now designated a “Creative Quarter”. Buildings that have been neglected for many years are purchased and refurbished to a high standard, and then assigned on very long peppercorn leases to a separate charity, The Creative Foundation, whose remit is to let and manage the properties for the benefit of artists and creative industries.
This website is intended to provide a guide to the work of the Trust and to help inform those who are considering making an application. Please take time to consider the information provided here, as we hope it will help applicants to determine whether or not an application is likely to meet the Trust’s charitable objectives, and if so what information is needed to support an application.
The Roger De Haan Charitable Trust is a registered charity no 276274. A full financial report and accounts are available at the website of the Charity Commission, by following this link: www.charitycommission.rdhct