A TOTAL of 20 charities are set to benefit from the match-day fundraising efforts of the Exeter Foundation during the 2017/18 rugby season.

Set up six years ago by the Exeter Chiefs and a selected group of local businessmen to help promote the local community and the vision of people working within it, the Exeter Foundation has raised more than £1 million since its inception.

The Exeter Foundation has helped to directly fund more than 80 charities and organisations, including the designated charities each year and several other projects and schemes.

Last season’s Foundation charities will be presented with their share of the monies collected at Exeter Chiefs match-days at the Season Launch Dinner being held at Sandy Park on Thursday, September 7.

The dinner will also be where the beneficiary of the Foundation’s latest sporting legacy project will be announced.

This £25,000 grant is available to match fund an existing project to assist an organisation with completion, and can be applied for until Friday, August 18.

Exeter Foundation chairman, Tony Rowe OBE, said: “Every year we are seeing the Foundation grow in stature. The work it has done for all the charities since we launched it all those years has been simply fantastic.

“We know from speaking to all the charities involved that the funds we raise really do make a difference in so many ways.”

The charities set to benefit from the efforts of the Exeter Foundation this year are:

Age UK, Dream-a-way, ELF See the Future, Exeter Dementia Action Alliance, Exeter Lions, Exeter Youth Rugby, Families for Children, FORCE, Living Options Devon, Merry Go Round Toy Libraries, Nightstop Devon, Rape and Sexual Abuse Line, Step One, The Hollow Lane Club, The Honest Truth, The Last Kiss Foundation, The Royal Marines Charity, Vranch House and Wooden Spoon.

Alan Quick