Employee support for charities
We encourage our employees to get involved in their local communities, through volunteering or fundraising for local initiatives. A large number of local charities benefit from these activities. We also encourage our employees to make use of the company's Payroll Giving facility.
During 2009 we launched our Employee Charity Panel to encourage and support more staff to get involved with the community. Employees can apply for funding to support any charitable or community initiative they are personally involved with.
These applications are reviewed by our Employee Charity Panel who meet quarterly to identify and allocate funds for those charities that they think will benefit most. Successful Employee Charity Panel applications are actively promoted via internal channels and additionally generate news items in local newspapers.
Corporate support for charities
In May 2012, we launched the National Express Foundation, to support the development achievement of young people through the provision of student bursaries and community grants. This is our principal channel for charitable support. You can find out more about the Foundation in its own section of the website.
National Express continues to support Transaid, an international development charity, in providing trainers to improve bus driving standards in Tanzania. Qualified trainers have been seconded to the Tanzanian National Institute of Training in Dar es Salaam to build the skills of local driving instructors, and improve engineering standards. You can find out more about our partnership with Transaid.
In the UK, we are partners with the Royal British Legion, The Prince's Trust and CHICKS. Our relationship with the Royal British Legion forms part of our commitment to support the military and former service personnel. The Prince's Trust and CHICKS - which provides respite breaks for young people from the inner cities - form part of our Youth Promise commitments.
In Spain, ALSA provides support to a number of organisations. Since 2007 it has been working with Unicef to improve the conditions in which babies are brought up in certain areas of Morocco. The next phase of the project will focus on the provision of neonatal and post natal care. You can find out more about our partnership with Unicef.
In North America, Durham School Services adopted the Special Olympics as its number one charitable cause in 1996. You can find out more about our partnership with the Special Olympics.
What we don't support
The focus for our charitable support is in areas aligned to our business and our employees. We are therefore unable to support financial requests from individuals outside the business, political or denominational groups, arts or sports groups, medical and animal welfare organisations or building projects.
We don't support requests for advertising or sponsorship unless they are part of a project we are already involved with.
Because of the volume of requests we get, we are also unable to offer free travel for charity "jailbreaks" and other external fundraising events.