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The Marine Conservation Society and Trees for Cities will each be awarded £50,000 by HarperCollins UK's parent company News Corp, via the annual News Corp Giving programme.
Both charities were nominated by staff across HarperCollins, News UK and Dow Jones on the back of their project proposals which will form part of a year-long partnership with the nominated companies.
The Marine Conservation Society will be using the donation to support the expansion of its Great British Beach Clean and Source to Sea programme of inland litter picks and data collection. As part of that collection, the charity identifies and records every piece of litter picked up over a 100-metre survey stretch and upload the results to an online database adding to more than 30 years of data to track the types and sources of litter found on beaches.
Trees for Cities will spend the donation on major tree planting projects across London, Glasgow and Dublin focusing on areas with high indices of multiple deprivation and low canopy cover, as part of its wider urban forests programme to plant at least 150,000 trees across the UK and Ireland.
HarperCollins c.e.o. Charlie Redmayne said: "The focus for News Corp Giving this year is the environment, and I am delighted that HarperCollins’ staff were part of the nomination and selection process that has resulted in these two fantastic charities each receiving £50k to continue their work in making our world a better and cleaner place."
Director of fundraising at the Marine Conservation Society Katherine Stephenson-Hall added: "This support comes at a pivotal time and means we can clean up even more beaches during our Great British Beach Clean." She said the funding will help kit out volunteers to remove rubbish, as well as attract volunteers who may not be near a beach but can still contribute to "the biggest citizen science engagement event for thriving seas and coastlines".
David Elliott, chief executive of Trees for Cities, commented: "By planting trees, we celebrate something we all love and cherish. Something that brings communities together and actively promotes healthy eating and food growing, and addresses pollution and stress of living in our cities. Through this partnership, we will help bring the multitude of benefits of urban trees to local communities in our towns and cities and create a greener, happier and healthier environment for today's and future generations."