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SPAR Community Cashback awards £96,000 to 23 groups
Howard Lake | 1 September 2026 | News
SPAR UK has awarded £96,000 to 23 charities and community groups across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales in the fifth round of its Community Cashback grants scheme.
The grants are made through SPAR’s four regional wholesalers rather than centrally, which is what gives the scheme its geographic spread. Recipients this year range from search and rescue services and youth charities to conservation groups and community sports clubs.
Where the money went
AF Blakemore, which supplies the Midlands, southern England and Wales, awarded £38,000 across five organisations. The largest grants of £10,000 each went to RNLI Margate lifeboat station in Kent and Penryn Rugby Football Club in Cornwall, with £6,000 each to the Pathway Project in the Midlands, the Children’s Sailing Trust in Cornwall and The Dragon Theatre in Barmouth.
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James Hall, covering the north of England, awarded £25,000 to nine causes. The largest grant of £10,000 went to Behind Closed Doors, a Leeds charity supporting survivors of domestic abuse, and £5,000 to Maryport Rescue in Cumbria. Other recipients included Niemann-Pick UK, CancerCare North Lancashire and South Cumbria, and Barnsley Youth Choir.
Henderson Group awarded £20,000 across seven Northern Ireland organisations, led by £10,000 to Plough On, a Cookstown charity working with older farmers experiencing rural isolation, and £5,000 to the drone search service Skywatch NI. CJ Lang in Scotland awarded £13,000, with £10,000 to the Cetacean Research and Rescue Unit in Gardenstown and £3,000 to Missing Pets Dundee and Angus.
What the grants pay for
Several recipients described core costs rather than new projects.
Georgia Hyland, Chief Executive of Behind Closed Doors, said:
“To an organisation of our size, this grant means a huge amount to every member of our small team. Referrals into our services remain high, and so securing funding to ensure we can continue delivering high-quality support and meet demand is an ongoing focus.”
Claire Johnson of RNLI Margate said the grant would support the rebuild of the station’s lifeboat and lifeguard facility, adding that the station “continues to have a critical role and is an invaluable asset to the town”.
Applying for the next round
SPAR says the scheme attracted thousands of applications this year, although it has not published an application total or a success rate. The company marks its seventieth anniversary in the UK in 2026.
Details of the scheme, including how organisations can apply for the next round, are on the SPAR Community Cashback page.
- Aldi Winter Community Fund invites nominations for local charities (5 November 2025)
- The Road Safety Trust awards £2.4mn in latest grant round, plus more funding news (18 November 2024)
- Funding opportunities in February 2026 (9 February 2026)
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.