DO YOU know a charity or project in need of a helping hand?

The Daily Echo is keen to offer grants to good causes in the local community, supporting schemes from neighbourhood improvement to environmental conservation.

Last year Testlands Support Project in Lordshill was among the groups we helped, awarded more than £4,000 to expand its work and buy its own equipment to run more sports classes for schools and clubs around the city.

Other recent recipients include Hampshire Riding Therapy Centre, which bought a new horse with its grant, while Hampshire disability charity Enham Trust used the £10,300 it was given to fund two bespoke kitchens designed to be fully accessible to people who use wheelchairs.

Now is your chance to apply for grant money in the latest round of donations.

The funding is provided by the Gannett Foundation, the charitable arm of Gannett Co, Inc., which is the owner of Newsquest Media Group including the Daily Echo.

In the last 10 years alone, the Gannett Foundation has made grants in the UK alone totalling nearly £4 million.

The foundation values practical and creative projects that bring lasting benefits to communities and neighbourhoods.

We particularly invite applications asking for specific items of equipment or materials. Most of our applications are for relatively modest sums meeting every-day needs, but we will consider worthwhile projects on a bigger scale.

While preference will be given to ideas which create a durable legacy for the community, we will consider single events or projects of limited duration that otherwise meet our criteria.

Applicants must must be registered charities and must not have received a grant from us within the last two years.

We will not fund salaries, political or religious objectives, state or privately run schools (other than special needs) or hospitals (other than hospices).

We will favour projects that demonstrate good planning, oversight and financial responsibility.

You must supply copies of your most recent accounts or other appropriate financial information, together with any supporting materials and details of your organisation’s current managing committee.

It will be a condition of each grant that the recipient must report back on it use to the chairman of the trustees within 12 months of the award.

Please email anne.dickie@dailyecho.co.uk for an application form.

The deadline for entries is 5pm on October 9.

The trustees will meet to make the awards at the end of November 2017.