Vote for your Charity of the Year

The time has come for staff members across the University to vote for our inaugural Charity of the Year.

46 applications were received, from a large range of different charities working across the Thames Valley area.

The Charity of the Year team has worked hard to whittle the applications down to a short-list of five, and now the final decision is being put to a staff vote.

The criteria for short-listing included considering the charity’s alignment to the University’s charitable objectives, the benefits to the charity, its beneficiaries and the local community, the benefit to the University and the overall quality of the application.

The five short-listed charities are set out below:

• No5 - a community-based organisation offering counselling and support to young people and those around them.
• Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity - supports families caring for a child (aged 0-18) with a serious or terminal illness. 
• Sport in Mind  - a Reading-based charity with a mission to improve the lives of people experiencing mental health problems through sport and physical activity.
• The Trust for Sustainable Living - centred around The Living Rainforest education visitor centre in West Berkshire, the Trust for Sustainable Living provides education for sustainable development locally, nationally and internationally, supporting both children and adults.
• Royal Berks Charity - is the NHS charity of the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust (RBFT). The charity raises funds to drive improvements in patient care.

Staff members can learn more about the short-listed charities and vote for their chosen charity by visiting this Microsoft Form.

The selected charity will engage with and be supported by the University in a variety of ways throughout the 2024/25 academic year. The University will begin engaging with the charity over the summer period, ready to kickstart activity at the beginning of autumn.

Voting will close on Wednesday 24 July.