Greggs Foundation:

Improving people’s lives by improving their environment.

It is good to see that the Greggs Foundation have launched a new environmental programme funded by the 5p levy on carrier bag sales in Greggs shops across the country. The programme is a pilot and the outcomes will be reviewed after six months.

The programme is community focussed and applicants need to show how people, particularly disadvantaged people will benefit. All projects must have an environmental benefit. Only organisations with a turnover of below £300,000 are able to apply. There are two grant levels, £2500 and £10000. When applying think about where your nearest Greggs shop is located.

This new environmental funding is to be welcomed and I very much hope that the Foundation publish the findings of their review once completed as it will be useful to see how communities make use of the grant and the benefits gained. Having previous experience of assessing grants I think that one finding may be that the time taken to assess a mass of grants up to £2500 may be too time consuming for their committees and the £300,000 cap on organisations may again be too low, but time will tell.

http://www.greggsfoundation.org.uk/environmental-grants

Photo: Pete Johnstone