THE North East’s biggest building society has played Santa Claus this Christmas by surprising 17 good causes with festive grants from their Community Foundation fund.

Newcastle Building Society approached its 30-strong branch network in the North East and Cumbria and asked them to nominate a group who they would like to give an early Christmas present.

The good causes included Gateway into the Community in Hexham, Northumberland, Hospicecare North Northumberland in Alnwick, Gateshead Crossroads Caring for Carers and West Denton Community Association in Newcastle.

This initiative is the latest in a line of supportive measures that the society has provided to the communities within the North East.

Chief executive Jim Willens said: “As a mutual building society it is in our fabric to be a part of and provide support to the communities in which we operate.

“We support a variety of charities throughout the year, but it was great to be able to help the ones specifically close to our branch network, in the heart of our operations.

“The donations deliberately cover a range of organisations and people as we were keen to help as much of a cross section of our member base as possible.

“The response has been great with the organisations appreciating the nice surprise.”

The donations were made possible via an endowment fund held with the Community Foundation.