Community Foundation spotlight – Jonathan Straight

Jonathan Straight is an award-winning entrepreneur and member of Leeds Community Foundation.

He sat down with TheBusinessDesk.com to speak about his involvement with the Foundation and motivations behind his philanthropic work.

“I became a member of Leeds Community Foundation in 2013. Since then, I have enjoyed attending many events where I have heard directly from some of the wonderful organisations that they support” he said.

Straight, explained how his business background has encouraged him to promote social value.

“In the past, I ran a multi-million-pound listed business. Whist we were a for-profit organisation, our social value was a key part of our offering in developing recycling programmes.”

“We were a founder member of the Social Stock Exchange – a platform for measuring the social impacts, and other impacts, that its members delivered.”

Adding that he believes social benefit needs to be at the heart of every business.

“For me, there has to be a social benefit of doing something aside from making money, or why bother?”

In fact the entrepreneur believes that it’s crucial to embrace the “transformative power of the arts and encouraging creativity” in order to help address poverty and fill the gaps where people’s basic needs are not met.

He added that over the last 12 months he’d seen “changes in the way money is raised” for community organisations, noting that in the future, “There has been a move away from fancy dinners towards creative, online events.”

Looking to the future of funding he added that through his own experience as chair of The Real Junk Food Project, he discovered that there were “more grant funding available to expand the scope” of  an organisation’s offering and it led to the realisation “that future investment must be sustainable”, as grant funding is “unlikely to be possible in the long term.”

Returning to the work of  Leeds Community Foundation and the role it plays in supporting communities in Leeds and Bradford to thrive, he said: “Supporting the Foundation is as good way to achieve great impact with the money you give. They invest directly in organisations delivering positive impact within our city, helping those who are most in need.”

If you’d like to find out more information about ways to get involved or become a member organisation email info@leedscf.org.uk or visit www.leedscf.org.uk