Rock increases charity spend
Mar 15 2008 by Liz Hands, The Journal
THE Northern Rock Foundation is to increase its charity spending by £4m, it was revealed yesterday.
It had been expected that the charitable foundation would announce grants of £7m to organisations in the North East this year.
But this has been increased to £11m, following the nationalisation of Northern Rock.
The foundation has also named the 15 charities that will benefit first from funding packages over the next three years.
These include Tyneside Rape Crisis Centre, Equal Arts and Show Racism the Red Card.
Alice Thwaite, director of development at Equal Arts said: “This is just fantastic.
“We would not be able to survive without Northern Rock Foundation, and without the grant our future would have been in jeopardy.
“This now means our work with art therapy for frail and elderly people can continue.
“We are relieved that such an important funder and supporter of the voluntary sector in the North East has the income to go on in future.”
For football charity Show Racism the Red Card, the news that they will receive a total of £61,000 between now and 2011 was welcome.
Ged Grebby, UK project co-ordinator, said: “As far as we’re concerned, this money means we can increase the service we offer in schools, both in terms of football coaching and getting the anti-racism message in the classroom.
“Working with former Newcastle player John Anderson, we are particularly focusing on anti-Islamic racial abuse in the game.
“Everybody knows the record and contribution to charity the foundation has in the region.
“In recent years the voluntary sector has had a hard time nationally, so this funding is really important to us.”
Northern Rock Foundation chairman Alastair Balls said: “Northern Rock’s history is one of benevolence. In fact, several of the organisations which came together to form the bank were benevolent societies, and so we aim to do is continue this tradition.”
Although the increased funding budget has exceeded expectations, the £11m total for 2008 is only half of the amount donated to North East charities in 2007.
As a result, the foundation has decided to focus its spending on the vulnerable and elderly, with less support for the arts.
Mr Balls said: “The trustees are very pleased to make these two important announcements – our first grants of 2008 and an increase in our spending for the year ahead.
“Last autumn, we took the difficult decision to scale back our programmes, and we set an initially cautious budget for 2008 of £7m. We now know that there will be a continued donation from Northern Rock under its new ownership arrangements.”
