NORTHUMBRIAN Water’s new charity cash boost initiative has seen hundreds of thousands of e-drops donated by customers to help charitable causes.  

Over 370,000 e-drops were donated by customers over the two month voting period using the utility company’s free app.  

Launched in December, Drop Swap will see tens of thousands of pounds donated every year with customers deciding where the funding goes.  

In first place with over 202,000 e-drops was Feeding Families – with Oasis Community Housing and Little Sprouts also receiving votes. All three causes will receive a cash donation and be offered support through the company’s employee volunteering programme Just an Hour. 

Louise Hunter, Northumbrian Water’s corporate affairs director, said: “We already support our local communities in many ways – gifting time and expertise via our amazing employee volunteers to donating cash and equipment to community and environmental projects. 

“The Drop Swap initiative is a fantastic addition to the great support we give our communities and it will help the charitable causes that matter the most to our customers. The idea originally came from a session with our customers at our 2019 Innovation Festival and so I’m especially pleased to see it brought to life as a great example of how our customers can shape how we deliver our services. 

“We want to help as many deserving causes as possible, through this funding channel, across our local communities of the North-East. So that’s why I’m urging all of our customers to download and start using our free app to help the causes that are close in their hearts.” 

A second round of funding is now up for grabs with three new nominated charities and the water company is asking customers for their nominations for environmental causes it could support in the third round.