The Northern Echo is giving local charities the chance to take a share in a massive £16k giveaway.

Our parent company’s charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation, is providing £128,000 in cash to support local charities across the country and we are delighted to have a £16,000 share to give away in our area.

We want you, our readers, to decide where this money should be spent.

It could be that you volunteer or work for a charity, or you may just want to support your favourite local charity by nominating it for a share of the £16,000 cash that we’re making available to support great local courses.

Making a nomination couldn’t be easier, simply log-on to www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/readerschoice or click here and fill in your nomination form or you can write to us, confirming the name and address of the charity you’d like to nominate and why to: Readers’ Choice Cash For Charity Nominations, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington DL1 1NF by the closing date of Sunday, September 11 2022.

Once all nominations have been received, our editor will select ten of the most deserving local charities to be featured in this year’s grants scheme.

The Northern Echo: Hearing Dogs For Deaf People in York was one of the charities that benefitted from the Readers' Choice Cash for Charity grant scheme last year. Picture: Hearing Dogs for Deaf PeopleHearing Dogs For Deaf People in York was one of the charities that benefitted from the Readers' Choice Cash for Charity grant scheme last year. Picture: Hearing Dogs for Deaf People

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We are then going to put the power to allocate the cash back into your hands, for four weeks, readers will be invited to collect tokens from our newspapers which can then be sent to collection points across our region or posted.

Each token collected will then be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity, so if your favourite charity collects 50 per cent of all to tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the £16,000!

Last year, North East charities that benefitted from the Cash for Charities grant scheme included; If U Care Share Foundation, a charity based in Chester-le-Street that supports families affected by suicide, Hearing Dogs for the Deaf, a charity based in York giving deaf people freedom and confidence, and Eden Valley Hospice in Carlisle.

This year the Gannett Foundation will donate £128,000 to charities across the country.

The Northern Echo: If U Care Share, based in Chester-le-Street was another great charity that benefitted from the Readers' Choice Cash for Charities grant scheme last year. Picture: If U Care ShareIf U Care Share, based in Chester-le-Street was another great charity that benefitted from the Readers' Choice Cash for Charities grant scheme last year. Picture: If U Care Share

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Newsquest terms and conditions will apply where relevant to the grants process; please visit http://www.newsquest.co.uk/prize-competition-rules.

Personal data will be used by Newsquest and its agents solely for the administration of the grants process and will not be shared with any third party; our general privacy notice is at: http://www.newsquest.co.uk/privacy-policy.

This campaign will be published in multiple Newsquest publications across this Newsquest region.

The 10 charities chosen by the local editorial panel will be voted for by our readers.

The value of the grant awarded to each of the 10 charities will be calculated pro rata according to their share of the vote.

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Only original voting coupons will be accepted, no photocopies.

The cash grants will be sent by BACS transfer.

Grants are conditional on completion of the relevant project and a successful nominee charity may be required to evidence its use of the grant.

The top 10 charities selected for the vote will be contacted to provide additional information for entry into the readers’ vote; should this information not be provided within the timescale provided then the editorial panel will select an alternative charity.

The charity must be registered with the Charities Commission and have not received a grant from the Gannett Foundation in the last two years.

Preference will be given to projects supporting those in our communities who are overlooked or under-served.

Grants will not be awarded for:

  • Salaries, professional fees or day-to-day running or maintenance costs of the charity (but this does not exclude such expenses where essential to a specific project)
  • General appeals as opposed to specific projects or items of equipment
  • Projects that do not bring benefits to our local communities
  • Political or religious objectives, or projects that discriminate in favour of particular ethnic or religious groups (but this does not exclude religious organisations offering charitable support to the sick or needy without discrimination)
  • State or privately run schools (other than special needs)
  • Hospitals (other than hospices)
  • Community Interest Companies that are not registered charities

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