News from: Reading Voluntary Action (RVA)

by Nakhat Zahir (Funding Advice Worker)

28 July 2008

Charities can apply for a slice of £2.28m that supermarket chain Waitrose will donate to nearly 7,000 community projects in the next 12 months.
The money is being awarded as part of Waitrose's plans to support more local causes, and will not affect its national fundraising initiatives.

The Community Matters scheme will be available in the company's 190 stores. Each one will receive £1,000 a month, which can be distributed between three local projects.

Employees at each branch will vote for which causes the money will go to each month - charities can contact their local stores to nominate themselves.

Customers then choose which of the three monthly projects to support by depositing vouchers they receive at check-outs into a box for their favoured cause. The amount each cause receives will be directly proportional to the number of tokens in each box.

2. Fund For Charities Championing Women And Girls
The first UK-wide fund devoted exclusively to championing and investing in charities working with women and girls has been launched. Rosa will be the only fund of its kind, devoted to investing solely in women and women’s initiatives across the UK. Rosa will tackle key issues – safety, economic justice, health and well being, and equal representation – by giving small grants to enable positive change at the grassroots and strategic level and tackle women’s inequality at its source. Rosa launches with £750,000 funding already secured and a further £750,000 in the pipeline. It will begin making grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 in 2009 and will be developing its funding criteria and grant application procedure over the next few months. To find out more or to arrange an interview with Maggie Baxter, call Ian MacQuillin at TurnerPR on: 020 8659 1158, 07977 422278 or email: ian@turnerpr.co.uk.

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