National Express Foundation

The National Express Foundation is central to National Express Group's support for the wider community in which we operate in the UK.

The public order disturbances in July 2011 highlighted the issues facing young people living in inner-city areas in the UK. The disturbances involved a disproportionate number of people in the 15-24 year age group. Unemployment, boredom and lack of motivation among this group were all cited as factors.

The Foundation aims to tackle these issues in two ways:

•    Support for students with challenging personal and financial circumstances to enable them to advance their further and higher education.
•    The provision of grants to charitable and community groups for projects which support children and young people and promote cross-community cohesion and understanding.

The Foundation holds charitable status - Registered Charity Number 1148231. Although the Foundation is supported by National Express Group, it welcomes donations to support its work. If you are interested in donating to the Foundation please contact us at foundation@nationalexpress.com

Students

We have identified that a lack of funds may be a deterrent to young people attending and completing courses of higher and further education.

To assist more students from the communities we serve to advance their education, the Foundation plans to offer funding to educational institutions which can be used to provide individual financial support.

Universities and colleges are far better placed to understand the student population and use their expertise to direct funds to those who are in the greatest need. They have well established systems in place for administering grants and bursaries, and we want to make use of these rather then set up an application process of our own.

Community groups

An immense amount of work to tackle these issues is also being carried out by local community groups. The Foundation aims to support some of these initiatives by providing funding via a programme of community grants.

The grants will enable the successful applicants to run projects which foster cross-community cohesion and understanding.

Find out more about these initiatives and how to apply for funding below. Please note the window for submitting applications for the 2013 round of funding is now closed. The successful applicants will be announced in May.

Student bursaries

Community grants

Find out more about who was granted awards in 2012.