direct charitable activity

In addition to the charitable awards and grants, Greenham Common Trust also provides direct support to charities, social and arts projects.

The Trust’s direct charitable activity includes such things as:

	Subsidised rents for charities and voluntary sector organisations
	Underwriting the cost of venue hire for local musical events
	Support for charitable events and fundraising initiatives
	Financial support for local educational initiatives
	The Music to Our Ears initiative and the promotion of the annual Opera for All event – making professional opera accessible to the whole community

The Trust has provided a number of organisations and charities with subsidised accommodation at New Greenham Park, the 150 acre business park that generates the Trust’s annual income. These include: Education Business Partnership West Berkshire, Thames Valley Energy, Newbury College of Further Education and The Watermill Theatre. In addition, the organisations based at The Slater Centre also benefit from reduced overheads with subsidies from the Trust.

To assist local musicians and musical organisations the Trust has in the past underwritten the expense of venue hire for certain, public events. This enables concerts and performances to be held which otherwise might not be possible.

In 2004 the Trust chose to support the Mayor of Newbury’s project to produce the Newbury Mosaic – the permanent, public work of art that records the town’s history. This was a community project that would eventually involve over 4,000 'non-artists'.

Between 2002 and 2005 the Trust provided financial support to five local schools, totalling £75,000, which enabled them to achieve specialist status. With its private sponsorship in place each school was then able to successfully apply for government funding of up to £500,000 to fulfil the requirements of its particular bid.

In 2004 Greenham Common Trust launched Music to Our Ears - a major initiative to make music of all genres accessible to the community by encouraging participation and musical appreciation. The Trust now funds many musical project s including an instrument loan scheme and the much acclaimed Opera for All This highly subsidised annual event that makes professional opera accessible to the whole community, being enjoyed by thousands of local at cost of only a few pounds per head.