Leeds Community Foundation CEO to step down

Kate Hainsworth is departing from her role as chief executive of Leeds Community Foundation, (LCF) where she has worked for eight years.

She took on the chief executive role in late 2017, following two decades of development experience with a number of third and private sector organisations. She has previously held senior roles at Opera North and Theatre Royal Wakefield.

LCF is now searching for a successor to Hainsworth, who said it had been a privilege to serve the organisation.

The foundation distributes grants and gives trusted advice to community organisations across Leeds and Bradford to influence positive change.

It is the region’s largest independent funder and is the only organisation of its kind in Leeds and Bradford, working with hundreds of community organisations each year.

Hainsworth said: “This job is so all consuming, I knew I needed to have a break before I could work out where I would go next.

“In a job like this you have to pick your moment carefully to be able to pass it on well. I knew we needed a stretch of smooth water in order to give my successor the best possible run-up to the role and I could see a period of relative stability ahead.

“My focus has been on getting the organisation into a position where it can be picked up by someone with new energy and ideas and I look forward to seeing where the foundation will go from now.”

Hainworth said the foundation had navigated though some “choppy waters” over the last few years.

“First Brexit was our biggest worry, but since then we’ve had the pandemic, the Ukraine War and the energy crisis,” she said.

“This has brought home the importance of having a really long-term view, because it’s only by careful nurturing of a resource for both Leeds and Bradford that you can have a rainy day fund.

“And you need to maintain that long-term approach, rather than just get drawn into each crisis.”

Commenting on highlights of her time as chief executive, she said: “I’m hugely proud of the Leeds Fund, which we set up in 2016. It’s a strategic fund for the community which really came into its own during the pandemic.

“The pandemic forced us to adapt quickly to online remote working, which meant would could support groups in different ways than before.

“We’re a much more relational funder, staying close to those groups who are receiving the money and continuing to work with them.

“I’m also proud in terms of our equity journey. Over the course of the last five years we’ve ratcheted up our self education and held ourselves accountable to being accessible to those communities which are more marginalised than others.

“Credit is due to our team, who have worked tirelessly to find new and creative ways of reaching out to these communities.

“We have a fundamental commitment to make the resources we have accessible to everyone in Leeds and Bradford.”