£50,000 Greenham Gift
announced by Greenham Common Trust

As part of an expansion to its existing annual awards scheme Greenham Common Trust has announced a major grant making initiative, to be known as the "Greenham Gift", that will provide a total of £50,000 for a local project or organisation and £8,000 each for four further projects, all of which will be chosen by readers of the Newbury Weekly News.

Charitable organisations and groups will be able to submit proposals to Greenham Common Trust in the spring for projects that require £50,000 to make them happen. These could be a simple one-off capital project or it may be a revenue based project that runs over a number of years.

A shortlist of suitable projects will then be announced and profiled in the Newbury Weekly News during April and the paper's readers invited to vote for the project they feel will most benefit the local community. The four most popular projects will then be asked to make a short presentation at a public event at the Newbury Corn Exchange on June 6th 2006 at 7.30pm.

Members of the public attending the event will then be balloted for the project they feel is most deserving and the winner will be awarded a cheque for £50,000. The three other short listed projects will be awarded £8,000 each as will a further project, again, selected on the night by the public audience from the list of projects that did not make the original shortlist.

Entry to the Greenham Gift event in June will be by ticket only and applications for tickets will appear with the initial voting forms that will be printed in the Newbury Weekly News in April.

Stuart Tagg, chief executive of Greenham Common Trust, says: “The involvement of the general public in the voting process for this major award will ensure that a wide cross-section of the public will have a direct influence on the allocation of the charitable awards. We are keen that the whole community is represented in the decision making process and welcome the support of the Newbury Weekly News in this initiative.

“Our annual awards are always over subscribed and this new initiative will allow us to provide additional funding for organisations and projects that will benefit the local community.” he adds.

For further information see the grant aid pages or call Andrew Barber on 01635 817444 or email andrew@greenham-common-trust.co.uk.