Investing in our communities
Working for your community
We're always keen to support valuable causes and invest our time with environmental and community partners in your area. We do this through our community investment and educational speaker programmes, charitable donations and employee volunteers. We can also provide ongoing support to raise awareness about the journey of water and our environment.
Book a virtual water talk
We’re offering online presentations about the wonderful world of water. Our team of experienced volunteer community speakers are visiting community groups online to explain everything water-related.
Trust Fund
We've donated nearly £6m to our Trust Fund since 2009, making it one of the largest charitable funders of debt advice in our region.
This year, we doubled our contribution from £500,000 to £1 million to support not for profit debt advice partners, including Citizens Advice.
If you’re from an organisation in our region providing money or debt advice, you can learn more about the grants programme on the Trust Fund website.
The Trust Fund supports free, confidential money management advice and one-to-one debt counselling for customers who need it most. If you're worried about money, there's help and information on our financial support page.
Our work with WaterAid
WaterAid is our chosen charity. We share their vision of a world where every single person has access to safe water and sanitation. Since 1981, we've donated over £35 million thanks to the help and generosity of our employees and customers.
Our staff volunteers previously worked on a four-year project in Bangladesh. This helped give more than 50,000 people access to clean water and 53,000 people access to safe toilets. We’re now working on a project in Malawi to improve access to safe water and sanitation in Kasungu and Mponela.
We believe we need to empower people in Malawi, particularly local council officers, water board employees and citizens, to help make a sustainable change.
Find out more about WaterAid and how you can donate to them here.
Encouraging our employees to fundraise
We’re keen to encourage our employees to get involved in fundraising for causes close to their hearts. We offer a pound-for-pound matched funding scheme up to a maximum of £2,000 for registered charities.
Our employees also have the option to support their favourite charities with our payroll scheme, Give as you Earn. This sees us contribute an additional 10% to our employee’s donations each month.
Other local charities we’ve supported
We’re proud to support a wide range of community projects and charities across our region. Here are some of the projects we’ve recently supported:
The Ahoy Centre, Deptford, London
The Ahoy Centre is a water sports-based charity in London. They aim to give disadvantaged and at-risk youths and disabled people opportunities to take part in activities and water-based courses. With our grant, they were able to purchase more boatbuilding materials to support their life-changing apprenticeships. They even named their very first cutter rowing boat after us – all aboard the Thames Watermen! Read more about The Ahoy Centre on their website.
The KIDS’ Adventure Playground, Hackney, London
We provided a grant to support the charity KIDS and their ‘Love the Lea’ project, which ran over the summer. With our grant, KIDS organised fun, educational trips to help disabled children in Hackney connect with their local river. They discovered local wildlife and learned more about pollution, including the perils of plastic. Read more about the KIDS’ Adventure Playground here.
Surrey Care Trust, Woking, Surrey
We provided funding for the Surrey Care Trust’s Swingbridge boat initiative. The project gives young people and vulnerable adults the opportunity to crew boats. They can also take part in conservation projects and enjoy boat trips. Read more about the Swingbridge boat initiative here.
Our Community Investment Programme
Learn more about our recent community investment projects in our Community Investment Programme summary: