Grants of up to £1,000 are available to UK registered charities for literacy projects in UK communities where the retailer W H Smith has a presence.
W H Smith PLC, trading as WHSmith, is a British retailer with its headquarters in Swindon, England. The company is well known for operating a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.
The W H Smith Group Charitable Trust is a grant-making charity that is independent from W H Smith PLC. The Trust supports the following priorities in communities in which W H Smith has a presence (a store locator can be found on the W H Smith website):
- Employee nominated charities, schools and other good causes by matching money from staff fundraising and time spent volunteering.
- Large scale literacy projects, currently through a long-standing partnership with the National Literacy Trust, and
- Local schools through donations to fund books and other literacy resources
A major part of the Trust’s funding goes towards projects to promote literacy. The Trust states that "research findings show that children who read for pleasure have significantly better life chances than those who don’t and promoting the love of reading is the principal objective of our literacy programmes".
Grants of £1,000 are available. Larger grants are occasionally awarded.
Charities interested in applying should contact the Trust in the first instance. The Trust can be contacted at any time. Further information is available on the Trust’s website.
WHSmith Trust
Greenbridge Road
Swindon
SN3 3LD
Tel: 01793 616161
Email: corporate.responsibility@whsmith.co.uk