It could be that you volunteer or work for a charity, or you may just want to support your favourite local good cause by nominating it for a slice of the cash.

Making a nomination could not be easier – simply log on to theargus.co.uk/readerschoice and fill in your nomination form.

You can also write to us, confirming the name and address of the charity you would like to nominate and why, to: Readers’ Choice Cash For Charity Nominations, Echo house, Howards Chase, Basildon, Essex SS14 3BE by the closing date of Sunday, September 11, 2022.

Once all nominations have been received, The Argus editor Arron Hendy will select ten of the most deserving local charities to be featured in this year’s grants scheme. 

We are then going to put the power to allocate the cash back into your hands – for four weeks, readers will be invited to collect tokens from our newspapers which can then be sent to collection points across our region or posted. 

Each token collected will be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity – so if your favourite cause collects 50 per cent of all tokens collected, it will receive 50 per cent of the £16,000.

Last year, Rockinghorse Children’s Charity was thrilled to receive £1,901.84 from the Gannett Cash for Charities scheme. 

Sharon Gearing, trusts fundraising manager at Rockinghorse, said: “Rockinghorse will be using this funding to provide a whole range of services supporting the mental health of sick children and young people living with chronic health conditions. 

“This includes emotional support for children diagnosed with cancer, mindfulness sessions, trauma related yoga, sea swimming and woodland wellbeing days. 

“Supporting young people suffering emotionally now is so important to help combat and reduce long-term damage to mental health. 

“Giving children and young people tools to help them cope with anxiety and low mood, will make a real and lasting difference to how they cope with their illness emotionally, both now and as they grow up. 

“So thank you to everyone who voted for Rockinghorse to receive funding, it will really make a difference to so many young people.”

The Sussex MS Centre received £2597.14 last year and opted to spend the money on a host of equipment for its clients. 

Emily-Jane Stuttard, centre manager, said: "We were so delighted and surprised to be awarded such a generous amount of money from the Gannett Foundation for our library project.

"The centre has longed for a comprehensive borrowing library specialising in MS for a good number of years now so it’s the answer to our prayers. 

"Thank you so much to all those good folk who saved Argus vouchers for us, it means to much to have community support."

L to R: Sussex MS Centre Support Officer, Ali Dunn, discovering the amazing news that Gannett Foundation are funding us for our library project with Peter Cook (Member and Trustee), Dominique Mains (Member) and Mark Aldous (Chamber Operator)

This year £16,000 cash is being provided by our parent company’s charitable arm The Gannett Foundation. 

It will donate £128,000 to charities across the country.

Please note the following applies to all grants:

Qualifying criteria

• Applicants must be registered charities
• Applicants must not have received a grant from us within the last two years
• Preference to be given to projects supporting those in our communities who are overlooked or under-served.

Grants will not be awarded for:

• Salaries, professional fees or day-to-day running or maintenance costs of the charity (but this does not exclude such expenses where essential to a specific project)
• General appeals as opposed to specific projects or items of equipment
• Projects that do not bring benefits to our local communities
• Political or religious objectives, or projects that discriminate in favour of particular ethnic or religious groups (but this does not exclude religious organisations offering charitable support to the sick or needy without discrimination)
• State or privately run schools (other than special needs)
• Hospitals (other than hospices)
• Community interest companies that are not registered charities.

Newsquest terms and conditions will apply where relevant to the grants process, please visit http://www.newsquest.co.uk/prize-competition-rules. Personal data will be used by Newsquest and its agents solely for the administration of the grants process and will not be shared with any third party. Our general privacy notice is at: http://www.newsquest.co.uk/privacy-policy. This campaign will be published in multiple Newsquest publications across this Newsquest region. The ten charities chosen by the local editorial panel will be voted for by our readers. The value of the grant awarded to each of the ten charities will be calculated pro rata according to their share of the vote. Only original voting coupons will be accepted, no photocopies. The cash grants will be sent by BACS transfer. Grants are conditional on completion of the relevant project and a successful nominee charity may be required to evidence its use of the grant. The top 10 charities selected for the vote will be contacted to provide additional information for entry into the readers’ vote; should this information not be provided within the timescale provided then the editorial panel will select an alternative charity. The charity must be registered with the Charities Commission and have not received a grant from the Gannett Foundation in the last two years.