Top Marks for Effort

20 April 2007

Barry Tanswell was once regarded as the voice of Oxford's retailers. Now, in his new charitable capacity, he is giving money away rather than making it.

Barry Tanswell has long been regarded as a money man. Over many years he delivered millions for Marks & Spencer as the manager of the company's Oxford and Banbury stores. But these days he is in the business of giving cash away - pots of it. A signed photograph of Rowan Atkinson stands on the desk of his office in Woodins Way, in the shadow of Oxford Castle. And initially, it seemed like the man, who not very long ago was regarded as the voice of Oxford city centre retailers, was enjoying a bit of a laugh himself. For he had invited me to chat about his new job as a chief executive. His mission to keep the cash flow moving - moving out the door that is.

No sooner had I taken my chair than he was beseeching The Oxford Times to assist him with his give-away plan. I happened to know that after Marks and Sparks Barry had gone off to run a gastro pub at Sibford Gower. Just as I was beginning to worry that he had taken to pub life just a little too well, he mentioned the name of the organisation that he is now leading - the Oxfordshire Community Foundation.

The foundation was created 12 years ago specifically to raise money to support the work of local voluntary groups. And since its creation the foundation has handed money and advice to literally hundreds of local community groups across Oxfordshire. The amount of cash it has handed out has just passed the £2m mark. Last year alone, the foundation awarded 131 grants totalling almost £350,000 to good causes. Groups to be helped have varied from Oxford Age Concern, which received almost £2,000 towards exercise classes, to the Garsington Baby and Toddler Group. There have been grants to charities to help the homeless. In Oxford, the Aardvark Gardeners' Co-operative received £1,000 to help a group with mental health problems to create a workers' co-operative, offering general gardening services, while in Cherwell £780 went to the Cruse Bereavement Group, to enable volunteers to undergo courses in counselling.

The foundation's founder was Sir Ashley Ponsonby, the former Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, who is still a patron, along with the Duke of Marlborough. Hugo Brunner, the present Lord Lieutenant, now serves as the foundation's president.

As the new chief executive, Mr Tanswell can hardly be counted as an overly sentimental man. Not only did he serve for many years as a West Oxfordshire councillor, he fought a General Election as the Conservative candidate for Reading East. He can even claim to have played a key role in giving the Tory leader David Cameron a crucial leg up on the slippery pole to power. As the then chairman of the Witney Conservative Association, he chaired the selection panel that chose the fresh-faced, well-connected and ambitious Cameron as the Parliamentary candidate for the safe Tory seat in West Oxfordshire.

Nor can the OCF's new head be viewed as man fearful of change. While at the Oxford M&S sotre he took part in a remarkable six-month experiment, which saw him swapping jobs with the area police commander for Oxford, Ralph Perry.

He now finds himself working with another figure well known to Oxford police, Wally Cox, the former police community liaison officer, who went on to represent rank and file officers in the Thames Valley Police Federation. Mr Cox is a stalwart of the OCF and now acts as grants manager, always available to help organisations with their grant applications.

The foundation moved to its new offices at 3 Woodins Way last July from its previous home opposite the Oxford Union in St. Michael Street.

Mr Tanswell said: "I suppose we are here to help people who are suffering some form of disadvantage, which can mean many different things to different people. They may be homeless, people with disability or maybe children in a village who have to access to play equipment." Switching business for charity appears to have revitalised him. "But for me it has been a chance to find out about groups in Oxfordshire I never knew existed. Groups like Oxpots, for visually-impaired people who are interested in pottery. They don't get any statutory funding but do a wonderful job bringing people together."

But the new chief executive now has his own concerns about central funding himself. This year will see some of the Government-funded income streams drying up, which could mean the loss of £250,000 a year. "This means that we have to raise that kind of sum just to stay where we are now," he said.

He certainly appears to know who to target and is soon drawing a detailed picture of a 40-year old who has worked in the city most of his life and has woken to find he possesses a social conscience. "He wants to put something back into the local community. But he has neither the knowledge or the time to look into it," said Mr Tanswell, warming to his subject. "Well, we do have the expertise. If someone tells us about their particular interests, say the disabled or homeless, then we can go out and find a worthy organisation to help. An individual can be as closely involved as he or she wants. They may want to be anonymous or go out and visit the project to see how the money is being spent."

Since taking up the job, he has been disappointed at the slowness of large businesses to show social responsibility. "Yes, I do think the corporate sector is slow to put its hand in its pocket, although some obviously do things in-house."

He is now concentrating his efforts on trying to tempt small to middle-sized firms into forming partnerships with the OCF, aimed at companies without the internal resources to run programmes for local charities. What many company managers may be most impressed by is the number of schemes supported that involve young people.

Oxford Sailability, for example, received £2,344 towards adapting the challenger-class boat Farmoor Fun for use by people with disabilities of all ages. And it is now hoped that the boat will be a catalyst to have challenger racing at Paralympic level.

A £5,000 grant from the foundation cleared the way for an off-road motorcycle course for teenage girls from some of the county's most deprived areas. The course is run by Trax, the project based in Osney Mead, Oxford, which aims to tackle antisocial behaviour by teenagers. Previous projects have included mechanical workshop activities and group sessions for teenagers who have experienced problems at school, young offenders and those showing signs of antisocial behaviour. Trax project manager Tamsin Jones spoke of the importance of the grant. "Previously we have had a few women involved in the project and they identified a need for a course designed for girls so that they could get involved in mechanics and riding off-road motorcycles."

But many are more surprised to learn that Berinsfield Amateur Boxing Club also has the foundation fighting in its corner. One grant allowed the Berinsfield boxers to buy a new 15-seat minibus, after it emerged that the club's vehicle was not up to travelling 13,000 miles a year, carrying young fighters to championships and club tournaments.

A journey across northern Sweden and Finland recently gave the foundation a welcome boost. Wantage MP Ed Vaizey spent six days sledging across he Arctic Circle to raise £10,000, which is being split between the OCF and Crimestoppers. The Wantage MP took part in the fundraising adventure with one fellow Tory, two Lib Dems, a Labour MP, a Guardian journalist and an ITN film crew.

The MPs had endured 60-mile treks in temperatures as low as -35oC and were faced with building their own igloo as well as catching their own food as part of their challenge.

As an ex-politician, Mr Tanswell no doubt sees the value of such carbon-free stunts in these green times. As a former businessman who has embarked on a new course himself, it is no doubt the back-to-basics approach that he admires.

For although he is now giving away money rather than making it, he is still essentially a seller - only now rather than knickers and food, he is working at the heart of the community with a big idea to sell to anyone who will listen.

By Reg Little

Reproduced with kind permission from the Oxford Times.