The Santander Community Plus Grants Programme

Back at the start of 2012 I wanted to do something about the drop in the number of applications that the Santander Foundation was receiving, particularly from small local charities. I had spoken to other funders and we had all seen a significant drop in both the quantity and quality of applications since the middle of 2010. This was counter intuitive as surely charities need funding now more than ever with the drastic cuts in government and local authority funding?

After extensive consultation with the FSI and the Small Charities Coalition as well as any small charities that I met at funding events we piloted the Community Plus local grants programme in the South West and Wales. Right from the start it was our intention to make this a light touch programme which anyone could use to nominate a local charity helping disadvantaged people. 

There would be very simple criteria and decisions would be made quickly – currently within a month. Members of the public, charities and Santander staff were encouraged to put forward small local charities for a grant of up to £5,000 with just three short sentences on a form that they popped into their nearest branch of Santander. There would be no closing dates and local staff would be the people making the decisions through a pool of volunteers that changed every month. At the end 2012 we launched Community Plus across the whole of the UK and two years later we have just awarded the 1,000^th grant and given £4 million.

Last month Community Plus won gold Corporate Engagement Award for the best foundation programme and it was only fitting that the FSI and the Small Charities Coalition were there to help us celebrate.

If you would like to find out more about the Community Plus grants programme please visit www.santanderfoundation.org.uk

Alan Eagle, Grant Manager for the Santander UK Foundation