Oakland Foundation

Oakland Foundation

The Oakland Foundation launched in 2012 and was formally opened by HRH The Princess Royal on 28 June 2013 at the headquarters of sponsor Oakland International in Redditch, Worcestershire. It is the philanthropic vehicle of Dean and Sallie Attwell, who co-founded the temperature-controlled logistics and supply chain business that generates the foundation's funding. The foundation exists to support disadvantaged children under the age of 16 and their families, concentrating resources solely in the immediate postcodes where the parent company operates UK depots. Grants cover three programmatic pillars: education, health and nutrition, and sport. The foundation does not participate in fund commitments or indirect investments; it makes small direct charitable grants to local schools, sports clubs, and community groups. In May 2025, for instance, it sponsored the kit for Marlborough FC, a grassroots football club, and sent a grant coordinator to attend the League Cup final where the team played. Activity is bounded by geography rather than sector — every recipient is linked to one of five industrial sites: Redditch, Bardon, Corby, Knottingley, or Skelmersdale. The foundation operates with a lean governance structure. Peter Vaughan, who serves as Strategic Development Manager at Oakland International, chairs the board of trustees. Second-generation family member Luke Attwell also sits on the board, embedding continuity between the operating company and the charity. The foundation shares administrative infrastructure with the sponsor — its postal address is the Oakland International headquarters on Seafield Lane in Beoley — and discloses no separate investment staff or professional asset managers. The foundation's structure reflects a ceding of investment autonomy. It does not hold an independent endowment; it draws operating funds from the profitable logistics parent and distributes them directly to vetted causes. There is no external fundraising, no donor-advised fund platform, and no acceptance of unsolicited applications. This corporate-foundation architecture means the charity's grantmaking capacity rises and falls with the commercial performance of Oakland International, aligning its philanthropic reach tightly to the health of a single B Corp-certified supply chain company in the UK's cold chain sector.