We operate both Group-level initiatives and business-specific programmes. Often our activities are conducted in partnership with other organisations. Some of our activity is also led by our employees. All endeavour to support our Community & Environment Value.

At Group-level, our principal activity is our support for the National Express Foundation, an independent charitable trust, which was founded to address issues impacting on young people in some of the key areas where the company operates in the UK. National Express has pledged long term funding to grow the work of the Foundation.

In the UK, we encourages its employees to participate within its local communities by actively promoting Payroll Giving and also supports employees' personal fundraising and volunteering activities through its Employee Charity Panel.

Employee support for charities

We encourage our employees to get involved in their local communities, through volunteering or fundraising for local initiatives. A large number of local charities benefit from these activities. We also encourage our employees to make use of the company's Payroll Giving facility.

During 2009 we launched our Employee Charity Panel to encourage and support more staff to get involved with the community. Employees can apply for funding to support any charitable or community initiative they are personally involved with.

These applications are reviewed by our Employee Charity Panel who meet quarterly to identify and allocate funds for those charities that they think will benefit most. Successful Employee Charity Panel applications are actively promoted via internal channels and additionally generate news items in local newspapers.

Corporate support for charities 

In May 2012, we launched the National Express Foundation, to support the development achievement of young people through the provision of student bursaries and community grants. This is our principal channel for charitable support. You can find out more about the Foundation in its own section of the website.

National Express continues to support Transaid, an international development charity, in providing trainers to improve bus driving standards in Tanzania. Qualified trainers have been seconded to the Tanzanian National Institute of Training in Dar es Salaam to build the skills of local driving instructors, and improve engineering standards. 

In the UK, we are partners with the Royal British Legion and The Prince's Trust. Our relationship with the Royal British Legion forms part of our commitment to support the military and former service personnel. The Prince's Trust partnership forms part of our Youth Promise commitment.

In Spain, ALSA provides support to a number of organisations. Since 2007 it has been working with Unicef to improve the conditions in which babies are brought up in certain areas of Morocco. The next phase of the project will focus on the provision of neonatal and post natal care. 

In North America, Durham School Services adopted the Special Olympics as its number one charitable cause in 1996. 

In North America, we have also launched Partners Beyond the Bus which links each depot to support a local cause. Local teams are able to build a relationship with a cause which is relevant to them and provide support through volunteering or fundraising.

Read more about our partnerships with charities

What we don't support

The focus for our charitable support is in areas aligned to our business and our employees. We are therefore unable to support financial requests from individuals outside the business, political or denominational groups, arts or sports groups, medical and animal welfare organisations or building projects.

We don't support requests for advertising or sponsorship unless they are part of a project we are already involved with.

Because of the volume of requests we get, we are also unable to offer free travel for charity "jailbreaks" and other external fundraising events.