News and Events

The UK’s new Government is to take forward a key policy initiative championed by the Carnegie UK Trust.  

The partnership agreement for the first time coalition government in almost 70 years commits the Government to creating “new trusts that will make it simpler for communities to provide homes for local people”. 

The Carnegie UK Trust is probably best known for its early investment in libraries and books for libraries. However the Trust has a long history of innovative investment and risk taking. Here we highlight an aspect of such thinking from our archives.

In 1932 – at the height of the depression – the Trust was investing in the Workers’ Educational Association and the British Institute of Adult Education.

One of the UK’s longest established “silver surfer” groups has just celebrated its tenth birthday. The Airlie Cybercafé in Angus in Scotland has been bringing together older people with time on their hands, to learn computing skills and develop new friendships.

Carnegie UK Trust’s Honorary President William Thomson CBE, Great Grandson of Andrew Carnegie took part in the celebrations. He was joined by Trust Chief Executive, Martyn Evans, who said:

This year's CILIP Carnegie Medal Shortlist puts eight page-turning novels about survival in the spotlight. Their stories deal with some of life's most challenging issues in an intelligent and highly accessible way, offering heroes and heroines that young readers can relate to and a life affirming sense of hope.

The judges received 54 nominations for the Carnegie UK Trust-funded prize and 48 nominations for Kate Greenaway Medal from CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) members.

The Carnegie UK Trust is working with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the City Parochial Foundation to develop ways to unlock the potential of organisations to influence change on behalf of their communities. 

The Carnegie UK Trust is using “power analysis” to help organisations in London and Yorkshire to build on what they are already achieving to ensure real change is achieved.  The Trust will use a mix of workshops and mentoring to enable organisations working at the grassroots to understand where their strengths lie and then to examine ways to exercise that power.  

The findings of the Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society are to be placed centre stage in a debate on how civil society can build a fairer, more responsible and sustainable financial system.

As part of Foundation Week from 31 May to 4 June, run by the European Foundation Centre in Brussels, the week-long series of presentations, debates and exhibitions about the role of foundations across Europe, a two hour open debate will examine the role civil society can and must play in reshaping the financial sector. 

I joined the Carnegie UK Trust as Chief Executive in November 2009 having been the Director of Consumer Focus in Scotland, the advocacy body formed through the merger of the Scottish Consumer Council, Postwatch and energywatch. Prior to the merger I was, for 11 years, the Director of the Scottish Consumer Council, a consumer research and policy organisation. 

My career before saw me spend five years as the Director of Shelter Scotland and then the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Scotland for a further five years. 

The Carnegie UK Trust, which established and funded the independent Commission as a part of its Democracy and Civil Society Programme, has welcomed the publication of the Making Good Society report.  

Chair of the Trustees, Melanie Leech, said:

UNIQUE SUMMIT HERALDS NEW ERA OF CITIZEN ACTION

Scotland’s leading civil society groups to devise ‘plan of action’ for citizen-led response to social and economic crises

Where traditional guardians of our society and economy have let citizens down, civil society can promote an alternative vision for a more equitable and sustainable future.

The event organisers believe this is a unique moment for Scotland’s major citizen-led organisations to come together. The need to listen and act with a shared voice is now more urgent than ever. The time to act is now.

The event aims to bring together voluntary and community organisations, trade unions, co-operatives, faith groups, campaign groups, and social enterprises to build an agenda for action. It is critical that this event attracts a wide audience from civil society, so we want to hear from you!

The summit will focus on the issues of: