WE'VE already had a number of entries from charities hoping for a share of our £16,000 community giveaway.

If you haven't applied yet, there's still time - but you'll need to be quick.

We are looking for worthy organisations that would benefit from the cash handout we're putting up to support local good causes.

Maybe you volunteer or work for a charity or you might want to support your favourite local charity by nominating it for an award of some of the money.

So far we have received entries from groups involved in animal rescue, mental health, dementia, disabilities and sport.

Making a nomination couldn’t be easier – simply log on to www.somersetcountygazette.co.uk/readerschoice and fill in the nomination form or write to us, confirming the name and address of the charity you’d like to nominate and why, at Readers’ Choice Cash For Charity Nominations, Tangier Central, Castle St, Taunton, TA1 4AS by the closing date of Sunday, September 11, 2022.

Once all nominations have been received, our editor will select 10 of the most deserving local charities to be featured in this year’s grants scheme.

We’re then going to put the power to allocate the cash back into our readers' hands – for four weeks, you'll be invited to collect tokens from our newspapers which can then be sent to collection points across our region or posted.

Each token collected will then be used to allocate cash to the nominated charity – so if your favourite charity collects 50 per cent of all to tokens collected, it will receive half of the £16,000.

The cash is being provided by our parent company’s charitable arm, The Gannett Foundation.

This year the Gannett Foundation will donate £128,000 to charities across the country.

Our local beneficiaries last year were St Giles Animal Rescue and Chard Museum.

Qualifying Criteria.

Applicants must be registered charities.

Applicants must not have received a grant from us within the last two years.

Preference to be given to projects supporting those in our communities who are overlooked or under-served.

Grants will not be awarded for:

Salaries, professional fees or day-to-day running or maintenance costs of the charity (but this does not exclude such expenses where essential to a specific project).

General appeals as opposed to specific projects or items of equipment.

Projects that do not bring benefits to our local communities.

Political or religious objectives, or projects that discriminate in favour of particular ethnic or religious groups (but this does not exclude religious organisations offering charitable support to the sick or needy without discrimination).

State or privately run schools (other than special needs).

Hospitals (other than hospices).

Community Interest Companies that are not registered charities.