Santander Foundation launches £1.8m Financial & Digital Empowerment Fund

The Santander Foundation has announced the launch of a new £1.8million Financial & Digital Empowerment Fund focused on providing grants to support UK charities and CICs working to build people’s digital and financial skills.

The Fund will support 12 projects equipping people with the tools, knowledge and confidence to make better, informed decisions about money. Grants of up to £150,000 per organisation will be awarded over a three-year period. Differing amounts can be requested in each of the three years, but the minimum amount requested in any one year must be £25,000 with the maximum over three years £150,000.

Applications for the new grants programme can be made online and the deadline is close of business on 13 August 2021. To apply, organisations must be based in the UK and working within one of the nations or regions and be a UK registered charity or Community Interest Company.

Since 2016, the Santander Foundation has supported over 11,600 non-profit organisations working with disadvantaged people with over £21million. Last year, it donated £3 million to the Alzheimer’s Society and Age UK to provide practical help and friendship for the most vulnerable people affected by the pandemic. The launch of the Santander Foundation Financial & Digital Empowerment Fund sits at the core of its new strategy for 2021 to 2024, which sees it aim to increase its impact in local communities.

Santander Foundation Chair, Judith Moran, said: 

“Without access to mainstream financial services and tools, the impacts of financial and digital exclusion are profound. Not only do people pay more for goods and services and have reduced choice, but it can also affect education, employment, health, housing and overall wellbeing. The launch of our new grants programme is aimed at supporting charities who work with those that feel the impacts of financial or digital exclusion the most. With the pandemic further highlighting the crucial importance of digital and financial skills, with more and more basic services moving online, we want to ensure we build the capacity of organisations that help more people in our communities become digitally and financially empowered, creating better opportunities for their future.”

For more information, including how to apply, visit: https://www.santandersustainability.co.uk/the-santander-foundation