Santander selects new three-year charity partners
Melanie May | 19 January 2016 | News
Barnardo’s and Age UK have been chosen by Santander staff to benefit from a combined fundraising and grant programme, which aims to provide funding of up to £1.5 million for each charity over the course of the partnership.
The charities have been chosen as part of Santander’s new community programme The Discovery Project, which aims to help one million people in the UK over the next five years through three core programmes: Explorer, which aims to help people learn about the world around them, Transformer, which will provide work-focused support and training, and Changemaker, which will support social innovation and projects.
The funds raised for Age UK will be used to develop a new initiative to support older people in preparing for the future called Ambitions for Later Life. The programme will involve one-to-one sessions with older people to provide support such as helping to prepare for retirement or living independently for as long as possible. The money will also help Age UK provide more companionship, advice and support to older people.
For Barnardo’s, the money raised will support On Track, the charity’s tailored support programme for long-term unemployed young people, providing one-to-one coaching to help them develop the skills they need to get into work, training or education.
Santander’s staff will also have opportunities to volunteer for the charities, such as through Age UK’s national telephone friendship service, Call in Time, which matches corporate volunteers with lonely or isolated older people and through supporting Barnardo’s UK-wide network of charity shops.
Nathan Bostock, CEO, Santander UK, said:
“Our purpose is to help people and businesses prosper, and we recognise that in a rapidly changing world for many the pace of change can be difficult to navigate. The Discovery Project has been created to help people make the most of the opportunities society has to offer. We are very excited about the potential for our partnership with Age UK and Barnardo’s to help some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.”
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About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.