You might well be nonplussed by the familiar quotation from The Wizard of Oz. After all, BRACE is a regional charity in the English West Country and has never operated in Kansas.
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when I found that the automatic Google Maps link for our annual Autumn Fair was directing supporters to a field north west of Coffeyville, Kansas. How it managed to interpret “Newman Hall, Westbury-on-Trym” as meaning a rural corner of the American Midwest, I have no idea. The problem has been fixed, though it was always unlikely that anyone was going to turn up on a Kansas farm looking for our fair.
It made me reflect again on what being a local or regional charity actually means. Many charities that describe themselves in such terms spend money on local community projects and are in every sense local. BRACE is firmly regional in that it spends all its research funds within the Universities of Bristol, Bath, Cardiff and the West of England. In so doing, it has maximised its influence and helped to build up an internationally respected network of research scientists fighting dementia.
However, when it comes to raising funds, we increasingly attract support from much further afield. There’s even someone running for us in an Australian marathon this month. That’s the beauty of the Internet.
As for our “area of benefit”, it really couldn’t be more global. The people of Coffeyville will one day benefit as much as the people of Westbury-on-Trym from the work that BRACE-funded scientists are doing. We just can’t provide a cake stall and raffle for them in October, which is why it’s as well that Google Maps doesn’t have us in Kansas any more.
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