Staff donate pennies to help local students

Over 1,000 staff have now signed up to our Donate Your Pennies Scheme, which is generating £500 a month towards University scholarship schemes to help local students.

In the last year 33 students have each received £1,000 from the Colchester Sixth Form and V16 bursary schemes. The latter covers the Colne Community School, Clacton County High, Clacton Coastal Academy, Philip Morant School and Thurstable School. 

Now in its fifth year, the Donate your Pennies scheme involves staff donating an average of 50p a month from their salary – their wages are rounded down to the nearest pound, with the remainder pennies going into the scheme. 

 “The money has given me the opportunity to do a four-week placement in Rome, allowing me to improve my language skills in Italian. Without it I do not think this would have been possible.” Jacob Wright – BA Modern Languages.  

Staff also donate to the scholarship schemes through Penny Piggybanks, found in shops and other venues across campus, and funding is further boosted by donations from outside the University. 

James Martin, Senior Philanthropy Officer, said: “It’s been another phenomenal year for Donate your Pennies with record numbers of sign-ups, up to nearly a third of the entire workforce now donating and Penny Piggybanks contributing hundreds of pounds in loose change across our campuses. It’s fantastic that as a result we’ve been able to support so many more students, and we hope to support even more next year.”