Bristol-based FRANK Water has been awarded £15,000 through Santander’s Social Enterprise Development Awards to help the business grow and increase its work funding clean water projects in the developing world.
The innovative social enterprise sells reusable drinking bottles at UK music festivals and events and provides a free refilling service helping to reduce waste. It donates 100 per cent of the profits generated from its sales to provide clean water projects overseas.
The award from Santander will help the business purchase new equipment to allow them to offer their service at more events, and employ a coordinator to manage their festival programmes.
Since 2005 FRANK Water has been funding clean water projects across India and has piloted a school water project in Ghana. Each project costs between £5,000 to £8,000 and provides safe drinking water for up to 6,000 people living below the poverty line in the surrounding communities. Once a project has been set up, it is owned, run and maintained by the local villagers to ensure it remains sustainable. Just one litre of FRANK Water sold in the UK funds 200 litres of clean water in India or Ghana.
Julian Alexander, regional director of Santander Corporate Banking and Chair of the judging panel, said: “FRANK Water was recognised by the judging panel due to its compelling business model and the potential for it to expand across the UK. With our funding they will be able to increase sales which in turn will allow them to save more lives in developing countries.”
Katie Alcott, director at FRANK Water, commented: “This award will give us the financial boost that we need to help our organisation grow. We have so far funded 70 projects reaching over 400,000 people and aim to extend this in many more communities throughout the world.”
Two additional social enterprises in the area received awards through the SEDA scheme: Natureworks Training based in Iron Acton, which was awarded £15,000, and Somerset Wood Recycling located in Weston-super-Mare, which received £50,000.
The awards are part of Santander’s commitment to supporting small businesses in the UK. Social enterprises play a vital role in local communities by helping to deliver social regeneration and the SEDA scheme aims to help those with potential to expand their work.
Alongside the prize money, winning social enterprises receive access to support from Santander including mentoring programmes, funding for internships and university business courses and training.
Winning organisations will also receive valuable input from the Quartet Community Foundation which will work with them to assess the social impact of their business and the effect the award will have on local communities.
