TIMES may be tough for everyone but charities across Hampshire can get a cash boost by applying for a grant from the Gannett Foundation.

The foundation is the charitable arm of Gannett – the US Corporation which owns the Newsquest Media Group, whose titles include the Southern Daily Echo.

Grants are made twice a year and normally range from £1,000 to £5,000 but can sometimes be larger – up to a maximum of £50,000 – for exceptional projects.

The Gannett Foundation supports projects which take a creative approach to local needs from which a large number of people in that community benefit. They should be for specified items or purposes, with detailed costings.

Handing out the grants last Christmas

Priority will be given to projects of lasting benefit such as specially adapted minibuses for elderly people or people with disabilities.

Trustees will also favour projects that benefit people with special needs either through disability or disadvantage, plus sport, environment, conservation and local history schemes.

Organisations to have benefited recently from Gannett Foundation grants include Southampton and City Region Action to Combat Hardship (SCRATCH) which helps hundreds of poor families across Southampton, Eastleigh and Winchester. Based in Millbrook, the charity received a bumper £32,600 from the Gannett Foundation for a new lorry.

Southampton Society for the Blind, the main provider in the city for people with sight loss, was handed £4,600 to build an audio descriptive club – the equivalent of a film club for those with sight problems.

The Fortune Centre of Riding Therapy in the New Forest provides an education for special needs students using their love for horses and received £7,000 from the Gannett Foundation to buy a new horse.

Youngsters across Southampton benefited from more than £4,200 given to the New Community Network. The money went towards the Red Bus Project and paid for a refurbishment of a new bus that acts as a mobile youth centre around Southampton estates.

Grants will not be given to individuals, organisations which are not registered charities, national or regional organisations – unless the project addresses specific local community needs, promotion of religious causes, endowment funds, general appeals or multi-year campaigns, medical or research organisations, animal charities, school groups or uniformed organisations.

The Gannett Foundation does not fund salaries or general running costs. No grants are given to organisations asking for money to pay for publicity.

Groups which have received a grant in the past two years will also be ineligible.

Applications must be submitted on the official application form, which can be obtained from Anne Dickie, Southern Daily Echo, Newspaper House, Test Lane, Southampton, SO16 9JX, or email anne.dickie @dailyecho.co.uk.

The deadline for applications is Wednesday, March 25.