Our Rebrand

Our name change and rebrand is part of a bigger project to modernise and improve what we do to put us in a stronger position for the next 30 years.

From 2020, through the pandemic and into the cost-of-living crisis we learned a few things that helped us make the decision to rebrand.

For the community groups we work with every day, our fundholders, supporters, the local businesses and for us here at Point North, the past four years have brought about many challenges and with those come opportunities to learn.

The need is growing

Firstly, the number of people slipping into poverty or precarious circumstances has significantly increased, and so the need for community support services is growing.

Because of this, the pressure on our grant making is increasing – we hit new records in grant making this year. In 2023/2024 we made grants totalling more than £7m. This is more than double our usual, pre-pandemic, yearly average.

Our donor geography is changing

And finally, we saw our supporter base become more international than ever, we’re connecting with donors from all over the world; people who care about making a difference and that want to make a difference in the North East.

So, the need is growing, and to meet the need, we know we must raise more and more funds. This presents a challenge. But we’ve learned we’ve got a global audience who care about the region. This presents an opportunity.

Our rebrand and name change is part of our long-term plan to help us grow, to make it easy for donors to find us so we can get more money out into the community as quickly as possible.

Alongside this rebrand, we’re focusing on internal efficiencies and systems that will simplify grant applications and monitoring and include new, simpler ways to donate as well as see the difference your donations make. 

Yes, we are still a proud member of UK Community Foundations (UKCF), a movement of 47 accredited and independent community foundations. Point North is the official community foundation for County Durham and Tees Valley.

As individual community foundations we are locally rooted, and as UKCF members we are nationally connected. 

Community foundations draw on local insight to shape philanthropy and strategic funding. Each year, we collectively mobilise over £180 million to grassroots charities and community groups throughout the UK. 

UKCF works with national strategic partners to enable investment in communities at scale. 

After a pitch process, we worked with North East agency Cool Blue to review our brand and our name and make recommendations to us.

As part of that process, we invited input and opinions from our fundholders and supporters. Cool Blue spoke to a range of stakeholders, including people who have received grants from us as well as our team and our board about what they think of us and how we can improve.       

We’re based in County Durham and have been working in County Durham for nearly 30 years.

In practice, the borders of County Durham have always been a little confusing, and can vary from past to present, depending on politics, faith and shrievalty. Often, we find ourselves saying we work in County Durham, and Darlington, and Tees Valley…and Hartlepool, and Stockton-on-Tees…!

Secondly, as part of our role as a member of the UK Community Foundation we’re often asked to administer funds which cover a wider geography than County Durham.

We’re now also the official Community Foundation for the Tees Valley – taking all of this together, County Durham doesn’t accurately reflect all the work we do and have been doing for many years.

And this means some communities might be missing out because it’s not clear where our grant giving covers.

While our home will always be in County Durham, we want to make a difference to the North East and beyond, because change doesn’t happen in isolation.

Increasingly our fundholders and donors are coming from all walks of life, from across the North of England and beyond – they want to support communities that matter to them, and we have a commitment to reflect the wishes of our donors.

For example, we may have a donor born and raised in County Durham, who set up a business in the Tees Valley and is now living in Northumberland – they may want to support projects in all of those communities, and we work with them ensure this happens.

So, our name change gives us the flexibility to be part of the wider North and more accurately reflects the work we’re doing on a day-to-day basis.

We’ll continue to have grants specifically for County Durham, Darlington and the Tees Valley.

The Poverty Hurts Appeal was an important part of the past few years, particularly during the pandemic. We launched the appeal to help us raise funds and support as many people as possible during an extraordinary time.

To date, the Appeal has raised £1m+ for communities in County Durham, Darlington and the wider North East.

Now, the Poverty Hurts appeal becomes our Change Today fund. Change Today brings funds in to direct to urgent projects which alleviate poverty.

Change Today focusses on making people’s lives better right now. Where people are having to choose between the essentials, Change Today will be there. Change Today supports projects or community groups that make sure people have access to food, warmth and safety, because we must start improving lives today if people are to have hope for tomorrow.

You can still choose to donate to that cause specifically by visiting our Giving pages.

We actually began to think about this process in 2019, knowing it would be strategically a good idea to plan for the future and modernise not just our appearance but our systems and the way we work.

We’ve budgeted for this work every year since then, but since 2020 we’ve directed all our energy and resource into supporting communities who have been responding to the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.

Everything we learned during the last three years only reinforced our initial idea that after nearly three decades it was time for a refresh.

Yes. Our intention is not to dilute our grant making, but to grow it. So, our available funds and grants for people and communities in County Durham will continue with the same commitment from our team and fundholders.

As a grant recipient, everything remains the same. Your agreements with us and our commitment to your grant will not change. Our company number and charity number are the same, it’s just our name that’s different, so all our agreements and contracts with you are still valid.

You’ll notice in time that the logos on reports and letters change.

You can click here to download our new logos and a short explainer of how to use them.

But, if you have any questions or would like some help, get in touch with our team at comms@pointnorth.org.uk.

The guidelines relating to specific funds, to any existing grants or to our grant giving approach stay the same.

The guidelines about our brand, our logos and how to use them, have been updated and you can find them in our Brand Toolkit.

Yes, our team is the same! You can see everyone in the team on the Our People page.

You don’t need to reapply for any grants, all our grant assessment processes continue as normal and you’ll receive a decision in line with the grant you’ve applied for, which is usually between 8 and 12 weeks.

If you have a fund with us, you can always specify exactly how and where you’d like the funds to be directed.

If you want to donate to a specific fund, such as Change Today (formerly called Poverty Hurts) you can click here to see all our Giving Together funds. These funds take a collective approach to donations, so that many people can donate small amounts to make a big difference.

If you want to donate to a specific location, you can get in touch with us to talk about how we can make that happen.

Thank you for continuing to support us, we appreciate your generosity.

There won’t be any changes to your direct debit donation. You might notice that on your bank statement it soon changes to read Point North instead of County Durham Community Foundation. But the terms under which you set up the direct debit remain the same.

If you’ve got any questions, please get in touch with us.

Nothing about our relationship with you as a fundholder will change.

The team remain the same, and everything you’ve agreed with us about the purpose and aims of your fund stay exactly the same.

You’ll notice that the logos change on your fundholder reports and statements.

We’re upgrading our internal system, so in time you will see the reporting improve and become more intelligent, providing more detail on the impact of your fund.

Finally, we do now have profiles for all our fundholders and we’d love you to populate this page with your community work, the ethos behind your giving or updates from your team.

Find your page here and get in touch with us to update it.