South West Water: Faster, more transparent grant funding

The challenge

South West Water’s customers and employees make up the communities that they work in. The company has a sense of responsibility to those local areas. They have a history of giving back through community grants but have never had a process for promoting, delivering, and measuring the impact. The community team was weighed down by the admin involved in finding relevant non-profits, running due diligence checks, transferring grant money, and measuring the impact of their work. They came to ActionFunder looking for a fast and transparent way to manage grant funding.  

The solution: Neighbourhood Funds

South West Water has launched 19 funds on ActionFunder so far. The platform’s become core to their community engagement efforts.

Every fund launched is promoted to all of the non-profits in the target areas and so the company’s massively increased awareness of their community work. When the pitches for funding roll in, the Community team gets a valuable insight into the challenges faced in the communities that they serve. With dramatically less time spent on admin, they’ve been able to use their time on what counts: getting out and about in those communities and developing knowledge of what’s happening at a local level. 

South West Water have made the most of being able to tailor the impact reports on ActionFunder. The data they collect (which auto-collates on their ActionFunder dashboard) includes bespoke measurements that the team then shares with board members, shareholders, and customers. The data available in the impact reporting has shifted the way the company considers social impact. They’ve moved away from focusing on £ invested and towards other outcome-centred metrics like beneficiary numbers reached.

“South West Water is always looking for new ways to engage with customers. ActionFunder makes it easy to support the communities we serve by funding local projects that meet local challenges.”

• Liv Crisp, Community Outreach Officer, South West Water