ScottishPower Foundation Awards: all the charity winners and runners-up revealed
Since it was established, some 200 grants have been handed out, helping fund work that is estimated to have supported hundreds of thousands of people across the UK.
Each spring, funding is given to registered charities for a range of projects centred around education, citizenship and community development, environmental protection, the arts, heritage, culture or science, and preventing or relieving poverty and helping those in need through disability or disadvantage.
In May, 19 of the most inspiring and innovative charities were awarded £1.1 million from the Foundation’s 2022 funding allocation for projects to drive positive change across England, Scotland and Wales, and offer people and communities the chance to reach their full potential.
Each of those charities – which include a theatre company working for equal access to performing arts for those with learning disabilities, a health and fitness scheme for disadvantaged youngsters, and the only organisation in Europe devoted to conserving bugs – were then offered the chance to enter the annual ScottishPower Foundation Awards to gain extra funding. Category winners receive a further £5,000 to support their vital work, with runners-up taking home £2,500 for their charity.
This year, a special one-off Legacy Award has been added to celebrate the £10m milestone: open to all charities that have previously won a ScottishPower Foundation award since the Foundation began its work, it aims to honour the heritage of the awards – with the winner getting £10,000.
Who has won the ScottishPower Foundation Awards?
The successful entrants announced on Tuesday, November 1, are:
Charity Champion
Winner: Fatima Mohammed, vice-chair of LINKES
LINKES (named after Lincoln Avenue and Kestrel Road, the streets surrounding the multi-storey flats where the charity is based in Glasgow) was set up to provide opportunities for learning and well-being, and to use communal facilities for the benefit of the community.
Fatima first became involved with the charity as a participant in the weekly women’s group before taking on two sessional staff roles as a cook for the lunch club for older people, and as a group worker with the same women’s group.
Soon after, she was elected to the charity’s Board and immediately voted in as Vice Chair where she was central to the charity’s COVID response. She also delivered a new women’s support session to help fellow Arabic speakers access the information and support they need. All of this is testament to her generous and warm spirit and the hugely positive impact that she has on so many people’s lives.
“It’s a real team effort, and I’m honoured to be part of it,” says Fatima. “The prize money will be put to good use and will enable us to support a range of community events and activities, for example our women’s support drop-in, our youth club, our Family Fun Day, activities for our groups, and will provide much needed opportunities for the local community to come together.”
Runner-up: Lorna Young Foundation
Community Engagement
Winner: Playlist for Life
A music and dementia charity that wants everyone with dementia to have a unique, personalised playlist and everyone who loves or cares for them to know how to use it.
“Music that is meaningful to a person living with dementia can be a lifeline, helping families, carers and healthcare professionals to connect through the soundtrack of a person’s life,” says a spokesperson. “These personal playlists benefit both the person living with dementia and the one caring for them by strengthening relationships, easing distress, and promoting person-centred care.”
Runner-up: Edinburgh Science Foundation
Education
Winner: Deafblind UK
Working to help people living with sight and hearing loss, the charity provides practical help, emotional support, help with technology, information, advice and even holidays to anyone who needs it.
“We truly believe that every single child should have an equal chance to learn and have a meaningful education, despite their sight and hearing loss," says Steve Conway, CEO of Deafblind UK. ” To win this award means that we can support even more students and their parents to get the education they deserve.”
Runner-up: Lorna Young Foundation
Innovation
Winner: Keep Britain Tidy
The charity, which works to cut litter, end waste and improve public places, had already secured grant funding from the Foundation earlier this year for its Ocean Recovery Project to prevent the dumping of redundant fishing nets by developing a long-term recycling system in the UK that will protect marine eco-systems, habitats and native species.
"The fund has enabled us to get to the beach and physically remove plastics as well as empowering volunteers by showing them that the litter they will collect will be put to great use in products for schools. We need to find solutions for problem and difficult-to-recycle plastics rather than taking the easy option of landfill,” a spokesperson explains.
Runner-up: Cheshire Wildlife Trust
The Legacy Award
Winner: Bendrigg Trust
The charity is challenging perceptions of disabilities and creating a more inclusive wider community by offering fully accessible, all-inclusive activity breaks for schools, groups, families and adults with disabilities and special needs at its centre in Cumbria.
“The ripple effect of our work reaches far beyond Bendrigg and this funding will help to create even more ‘ripples’ through our ‘Someone Like Me’ volunteering programme,” says a spokesperson. “The continued support of the ScottishPower Foundation means that Bendrigg can offer everyone a place and a community where they feel included as standard, alongside having an adventure of a lifetime!”
Scottish charities shortlisted for the Legacy Award were Edinburgh’s Music in Hospitals & Care, which uses music to connect people and helps to develop relationships in care settings, and Perth Autism Support that offers support services for young people, children, and families living with autism.
More demand than ever for charities’ services
The awards were set up to allow charities to take a moment to celebrate their achievements and help them connect, explains Mike Thornton OBE, who chairs the Foundation’s Board of Trustees. This year’s inclusion of the one-off Legacy Award offers a chance to reflect but also to look to the future, he explains. “We have reached this £10 million milestone but the good work actually does live on. It is about looking back and celebrating, and then on to the future: our support is all about what you are going to do next as well as what you have already done.”
And, says Melanie Hill, the Foundation’s Executive Officer and a Trustee, charities need support more than ever. According to research by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, 57 per cent of charities reported an increase in demand for their services at the end of last year, and the Foundation has seen this first-hand with a dramatic increase in applications for funding.
“Corporate giving is more important than ever before,” says Melanie, adding there were 523 applications for the 2022 round of grants, which were whittled down to 19 supported charities. “We want to do the best we can to get that money to the projects that need it most.”
With each application judged on its relative merits, the key focus is making selections which can do the most good – and that’s not always based on the size of the charity or how well-funded it already is. “For us, it’s very much about impact and where we can make a real difference,” stresses Mike.
Choosing the most deserving candidates is a tough process, but it’s also a privilege, particularly when it comes to judging the Charity Champion award category, says Melanie. “There are so many incredible people who are doing such inspirational things for others. It is really nice to witness the hope that is around.”
A fund that is flexible in its support
With “more and more good work that needs doing”, as Mike puts it, the Foundation has worked to be as flexible as possible within its scope in recent years; and acting as an honourable funder has meant sometimes widening the remit of work that was funded.
For example, when Nightingale House Hospice in Wrexham received funding in 2020, it was originally for an Artists in the Atrium creative project. But when the pandemic hit, the hospice was able to redirect some of the grant to respond to the immediate needs of those using its services, including the launch of a food delivery scheme which supported 250 vulnerable households.
This adaptable approach was also acknowledged by those at Dundee Heritage Trust who received support in 2021 for the Dundee Dome Experience, a dramatic new gallery at its Discovery Point museum; at its launch, its leaders mentioned that the Foundation’s patient support had been appreciated.
“We are often one of many sources of funding for a charity, so the question is: what makes our support more valuable? We feel that if we take a collaborative, flexible approach, we can have an impact that is about more than just money,” says Mike. “We are a relatively small funder so we can be nimble and flexible and respond to the needs of the charitable sector.”
An extra boost for sea habitats
Making vital money go further was the key for the first award made by the Marine Biodiversity Fund, which was launched by the Foundation in October 2021 to honour the ambitions of COP26.
Up to £600,000 will be given over three years to the Restoration Forth project – led by WWF – in the biggest ever grant awarded by the Foundation. And, as a result of that initial cash boost, the scheme has now secured additional funding streams that can help the project move forward and restore seagrass meadows and oysters in the Firth of Forth.
The Foundation’s mission is to help improve quality of life for the most vulnerable people and to encourage sustainable development by supporting charitable work throughout the UK. And Restoration Forth will play a significant part in the journey to net zero: seagrass captures carbon up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests and, even though it only covers 0.2 per cent of the seafloor, it absorbs a tenth of the ocean's carbon each year.
“This project can make a real difference, so we are really excited about it,” explains Mike. “If you are the first funder, you can draw attention to a particular area and that is exactly what happened here.”
The fact that the project has brought together many groups, ranging from local communities and schools to Heriot Watt University and leading conservation organisations, also reflects the collaborative approach taken by the Foundation.
The project will create a long and lasting legacy that will benefit people and communities for many years to come – and that’s exactly what the ScottishPower Foundation is all about.
To find out more about the Foundation and how to apply for a grant, visit www.scottishpowerfoundation.com.