Newsquest is launching its “Cash for Charities” drive on Monday, 6th September across its portfolio of titles including The Northern Echo, South Wales Argus and Glasgow Herald.
The awards are made annually through the Gannett Foundation which every year supports charitable community projects all over the UK. Each year, it gives out thousands of pounds in grants to charitable organisations for life-changing projects, says the company.
Newsquest’s CEO Henry Faure Walker said: “Readers understand the causes that matter in their local community and they are best placed to make the choice. Everyone at Newsquest is delighted to be giving our readers the opportunity to influence how this year’s Gannett Foundation giving will be spent.”
Newsquest readers will be invited to nominate their favourite charities for cash grants. An editorial panel will select the most deserving from all nominations received, and then readers will be invited to collect voting tokens published in the newspapers to back their choice: the more tokens collected for the respective charity, the bigger the share of cash awarded.
Newsquest is sharing the £125,000 cash pool across its seven regions.
Past grants from the Gannett Foundation have supported a wide variety of good causes, including cash for hospices, community construction projects, support for the elderly or disabled, and projects helping to tackle homelessness and a lack of opportunities for disadvantaged young people.
Last year, dozens of winners included the Creative Kids project in Bournemouth, Dorset, which was given funds for a projector, screen and curtains for a community theatre for disadvantaged young people; and in South Wales, a charity called Amazing Grace Spaces was awarded a grant to buy bedroom furniture for homeless women. Other recent beneficiaries include Butterwick Hospice Care in Stockton-on-Tees, Bolton Bulls Wheelchair Basketball Team, Salisbury Trust for the Homeless, Unity Enterprise in Glasgow, Cotswold Canal Trust and Trowbridge Community Area.
Three special awards of £10,000 each also went to the Journalists Charity, the NCTJ’s Journalism Diversity Fund and the Newstraid Benevolent Fund, for people from retailing and distribution businesses who had fallen on hard times.
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