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Firms asked to fund charity projects

Sep 05 2008

The government is putting aside £50 million to match contributions made by businesses to grassroots community projects.

In what the Office of The Third Sector has described as an 'innovative' project, endowment investments made by firms to community causes with less than £20,000 will be matched by funds from the government.

As well as being open to companies, the endowment scheme can also be used by individuals and investors to make contributions to their favourite causes.

It is expected that the programme will help those groups which have not considered applying for grants before.

Phil Hope, minister for the third sector, explains that there are thousands of groups which strive to solve local problems.

He adds that donating through this programme is particularly effective because 'every penny that goes in will return a much greater value'.

The Office of the Third Sector has recently tried to reduce financial barriers by raising the income threshold at which charities are required to produce detailed records of their donations and expenditure.

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