About us

The genesis of GIVE Northants dates back to 2006 when Firoz Makhani, a Northampton GP, initiated a fundraising event to raise funds for a breast screen unit at Northampton General hospital.

He approached fellow medical staff, patients and local business to help in this effort and the centrepiece of this effort was a sponsored walk around Pitsford reservoir; from this ‘Walk for a Cause’ was born, taking the perimeter map of the reservoir as their logo.

Firoz continued to develop the initiative registering Walk for a Cause as a charity and securing the support of local business, principally those from his own African / Indian community.

For the next few years the charity prospered, more fundraising events were organised and it was in 2014 that Steve Adams was introduced to the charity as a potential source of funds for his charity Teach Africa.

Our application was successful, and secured a second tranche of funding. 

Around 2016 Steve got involved in some of the fundraising for Walk for a Cause using the facilities of his events company, Go Beyond. This then led to Steve being invited to become a trustee and subsequently chair of the charity.

Unfortunately, at this time for one reason or another, ironically ill health, many of the original trustees and benefactors were no longer able to support the charity, resulting in an almost complete breakdown in the original funding model.

Together with founding trustee Kathryn Ozlati, Steve did his best to “keep the show on the road” but it soon became clear to both of them that unless some fundamental changes were made to the charity, it would not survive beyond the reserve funds held.

Enter Paul Bone, who Steve met while Paul’s company was re-roofing his house; and in conversation, Paul expressed an enthusiasm for doing some fundraising for local social enterprise groups who he felt were adding significant value to the communities he grew up in.

The conversation developed to include other small businesses and the possibility of using a renamed and restructured version of Walk for a Cause as the platform for the initiative. Paul was also involved in a local networking group along with Kathryn, where we could engage with other small businesses – and for the three of them – it felt very much like the basis of a plan.

And so in 2021 and in the heart of a global pandemic, Northants Community Aid came into being; with Paul joining the committee as a Trustee joining Bob Walder, Val Bridges, Kathryn Ozlati and Steve Adams. We refocused our funding support to local small charities, particularly those focused on the health and well being of the communities they served, while Paul and Kathryn recruited other local businesses to the cause into our membership model.

By 2022, we were joined by three new trustees: Paul Green, Tracy Whittaker Smith MBE; and Sam Sayer who from January 2023 took over as chair.

2024 saw the departure of Steve as Chair and ultimately as trustee as he moved to focus on his other charitable activities – some of whom we have since awarded grants to. Paul Bone also departed at the end of 2024; and in 2025, Bob and Val also took a step back as trustees.

With a growing supporter base, and grants awarded growing year on year; the trustees put new systems in place, and the decision was made to rebrand and focus on what had become our core offering: GIVE Northants.