Goodman Trust
Since 2011, Norfolk Community Foundation has been helping the Goodman Tust to support local communities and ensure a lasting impact for years to come.
The origins of The Goodman Trust go back to 1936 when Adelman Goodman, who had previously emigrated from Vilnius in White Russia, took over an ailing shoe manufacturing company in Norwich – The Florida Shoe Factory. Adelman was shortly joined by his two sons, Lionel and David Goodman, and in 1972 Simon Goodman (Lionel’s son) also joined the business.
In 1988 the Florida Group of companies decided to set up a charitable trust for the benefit of the inhabitants of Norwich and surrounding areas. In the first meeting, it was recorded that the Trust had been endowed by a covenant from the Florida Shoe Factory (Norwich) Ltd for £2,500 for a period of four years. Nearly twenty years later the Trust had assets of around £500,000 and had distributed over £100,000 in grants.
In 2023, with the Trust’s future sustainability in mind, Simon Goodman and his fellow Trustees decided to transfer the full assets of the charitable trust to Norfolk Community Foundation, establishing a permanent endowment, invested in perpetuity to generate income for charitable purposes in keeping with the charity’s original objects.
The transfer of the charitable trust was made on the back of an already established close working relationship between The Goodman Trust and NCF. The Foundation had managed an endowment fund and a restricted grant-making fund for the Trust since 2011, and through this work were able to support numerous charities providing essential care, support and opportunities for the most vulnerable in our communities.
Simon and his wife Margaret are still closely involved with the work of the fund as they sit as advisors on the fund’s advisory panel, inputting into decisions about grant-making.
The Foundation is looking forward to continuing to build on the good work of The Goodman Trust.
“We are very pleased to have transferred our Charitable Trust to Norfolk Community Foundation as we were concerned about Trustee succession and the ability to administer grant-making going forward.
Margaret and I feel comforted to know that the Trust is in a safe pair of hands and that it will continue to provide much needed funding to Norfolk charities and the communities and people they serve both now and in perpetuity.
We are reassured to know that this fund will stay true to our values in the long term and provide the opportunity for the next generation to gift to it.”
