The Wavendon Foundation is a registered charity founded by Sir John Dankworth and his wife, Dame Cleo Laine, while living in their Victorian rectory in Wavendon, Milton Keynes. The Rectory’s large & beautiful garden played a significant role in the charity’s early days. It was the venue for a series of outdoor fund-raising concerts that were then its main source of income. The charity is administered by a board of trustees who meet quarterly to consider applications for financial or other support.
The charity’s trust deed defines their objectives as “to apply funds whether or not to a registered charity to bodies corporate or persons engaged or who have been engaged in the education of the public through the performing arts for the relief of poverty amongst such class or classes of person or persons”. With these as the fundamental guidelines they therefore concentrate donations specifically towards the Performing rather than to Visual or other art forms. They have supported a wide range of music performance and education genres, concentrating particularly on individuals who are suffering hardship in pursuance of their ambitions, but anyone engaged in other branches of the performing arts, professionally or not, is welcome to apply. All applications must be accompanied by the form available on this website.
This is a rolling fund – the trust meet quarterly for decisions.