Gatwick Airport seeks good causes from Surrey for round two of funding

Gatwick Airport has launched round two of its call-out for deserving local causes in Surrey.

The Gatwick Foundation Fund has £33,000 available now for Surrey projects and is asking local groups which could do with extra support during the cost-of-living crisis to express an interest by 9am on 13 March 2023.

Each year three rounds of grants, totalling £100,000, are made available to beneficiaries in Surrey.

Melanie Wrightson, Stakeholder Engagement Manager at Gatwick Airport, said: “We are acutely aware of the extra pressure being placed on those grassroots organisations and voluntary projects that work so hard to help people in need.

“We have funds available, and we would like these organisations to step forward and apply – especially as times are so much tougher than usual.”

Sandy Featherstonhaugh, Chief Officer at Age Concern Merstham, Redhill & Reigate, said: “We have received two separate grants from the Gatwick Foundation Fund, both of which helped the charity enormously.

“We received a grant for £4,000 towards the Men’s Shed coordinators’ salary in March 2017, we then received a further grant for £7,174 towards core funding costs in January 2020.

“Both grants came at a time when the charity was really struggling. The men’s shed project has since come under the financial umbrella of the charity as a whole, but at the time it was a stand-alone, self-funded project, and if we hadn’t received the money towards the coordinators’ salary, we would have had to close the shed.

“Although we didn’t realise it at the time, the core funding project came just before the Coronavirus lockdown, a period of indefinite closure with none of our usual fundraising events or activities, and the funding gave us a small cushion to avoid making hasty decisions.”

The Gatwick Foundation Fund in Surrey was set up in 2016 to award funding to local groups that work to fight social isolation and tackle disadvantage, raise aspirations and develop skills, improve health and wellbeing, and support children and young people. The Foundation Fund covers groups operating in Reigate and Banstead, Tandridge and Mole Valley area and is available to both new and existing projects.

Melanie Wrightson said: “To date, we have supported more than 80 good causes in Surrey because we believe it’s important that everyone in the community benefits from the success of the airport.

“We encourage all those who are eligible to come forward.”

The Gatwick Foundation Fund is managed on behalf of Gatwick Airport in Surrey by the Community Foundation for Surrey.

To apply for funding from the Gatwick Foundation Fund in Surrey, please go to: https://www.cfsurrey.org.uk/

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Gatwick Airport has launched the latest round of its Foundation Fund, with £33k to support community groups in #Surrey

Local causes should apply by 9am on 13 March:

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About Gatwick Foundation Fund

The Gatwick Foundation Fund is managed by individual Community Foundations for Kent, Sussex and Surrey on behalf of Gatwick Airport, which oversees the programme and assesses all applications.

Each year, there are three rounds of grants, which are split equally between Sussex, Surrey and Kent.

Since it was founded in 2016, the Gatwick Foundation Fund has made more than £1m in donations, which support local grassroots community and voluntary projects that make a difference to people’s lives and meet local need. The Gatwick Foundation Fund was suspended in April 2020 due to the pandemic. It operates in Sussex across Crawley, Horsham, Mid Sussex and Wealden, in Surrey across Reigate & Banstead, Tandridge and the Mole Valley area, and in Kent across Tonbridge and Malling, Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks.

For more information visit: https://www.gatwickairport.com/business-community/community/our-support/foundation-fund/