News Corp has donated £100,000 to four UK charities as part of its annual News Corp Giving fund – an initiative designed to benefit charities in the communities where employees at News Corp’s UK-based companies live and work.

This year’s fund was split equally between Refuge, Mary’s Meals, Buttle UK and Whizz-Kidz, as voted for by employees at Dow Jones, HarperCollins UK and News UK, from a shortlist of seven charitable organisations.

Receiving the highest number of votes, the domestic abuse charity Refuge will use the £25,000 donation to cover the costs of a child support worker over the next year, helping around 75 children and their mothers to rebuild their lives.

Mary’s Meals, a charity that sets up school feeding projects in some of the world’s poorest communities, will put News Corp’s donation towards giving 1,600 chronically hungry children at Chembera Primary School in Malawi a meal every day for the next year.

Supporting Buttle UK’s “Chances for Children Campaign,” News Corp’s donation will help change the lives of 40 vulnerable children from across the UK.

Whizz-Kidz, the UK’s leading children’s mobility charity, will use the funding to create 100 opportunities on its Wheelchair Skills Training sessions.

More than 1,000 employees from across the three companies – including those at News Corp UK’s London Bridge headquarters, Unruly, Wireless, News UK’s print site in Broxbourne and HarperCollins’ Glasgow distribution centre voted for the charities they thought deserving of the funding.

News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks said: "Each year News Corp has donated money to charities nominated by our staff, offering them the opportunity to support causes they feel strongly about.  Our staff will follow the progress of these worthy projects and I hope this funding will make a real impact on the charities."

Whizz-Kidz, Refuge and Buttle UK visited The News Building on Friday (picture top) to meet staff and Mary's Meals visited our Glasgow offices on Monday (below).

The charities explained to staff how they would spend their £25,000 donation and will be in contact over the coming months to show how the donation is making a real difference to people's lives.