Funding for work shower

[Boyseys Mum]

Its not for employers to be subsidizing your home bills for water/gas whatever, you wanting a shower isnt their problem. Nowhere I have worked has had showers for employees and plenty of people cycled in without needing one. If you had asked about it they would have just told you no full stop.
Also how dirty is a person going to get on a commute? I think some people are being rather OTT here.

[Heltor Chasca]

Sadly I have found that people who have never run a company or worked for themselves just 'expect' their employers to drop everything for them and throw money about. It is part of the whole 'the world owes me a favour' attitude that younger people seem to be plagued with.

I had one (very good) guy who threw his toys out the cot when he wasn't happy with one particularly benign grievance and yelled, 'Right! Well I'll leave then!' I said, 'OK, carry on. Thanks for your time here.' Not what he expected and some serious back-pedalling had to be done of his part.

Another guy who had come to me from a large horticultural organisation couldn't understand why I refused to enter the company into trade shows and got frustrated and shirty with me. They can cost tens of thousands of pounds. I must say I don't miss him working for me anymore. [emoji48]

[Geoff.D]

Its not for employers to be subsidizing your home bills for water/gas whatever, you wanting a shower isnt their problem. Nowhere I have worked has had showers for employees and plenty of people cycled in without needing one. If you had asked about it they would have just told you no full stop.
Also how dirty is a person going to get on a commute? I think some people are being rather OTT here.

With respect, I think you might be missing the point raised by the OP. He/she isn't expecting or demanding a shower, but asking for information as to how to fund the provision of one. A crucial point is that he/she works in a unit managed by a regeneration charity, and such contexts are often open to new ideas such as providing community facilities. Indeed, providing access to the community is often within their constitution/terms of reference (eg access to photocopying; internet; training rooms; kitchen; and so on). In such a non-profit driven environment, the idea of having a shower on site is not such a no-no as it is likely to be for a commercial employer.

With regard to it being OTT to enjoy a shower, I beg to differ. For many years I worked in a community centre (with constitutional principles very much like the ones I outlined above) and my commute was 24 miles each way. I never knew, one day to the next, how wet, sweaty or dirty I would be when I arrived. The showers in the community centre weren't specifically to encourage cyclists, but for the physical activities within the centre. But, they certainly helped me be clean and tidy for my day's work. Other cyclists, simply chained their bikes up outside and got on with life. But they were local cyclists, and didn't feel the need for washing and showering.

Every situation is different. Every cyclist arrives in a different state. Every cyclist rides his/her commute in a different fashion. I would have thought that the option to wash (and even better to shower, if the organisation has that commitment) is useful. After all, it's like when you don't like a TV programme....you have an "off" button. If you don't need or want a wash, you don't have to.

[Stevek76]

With companies providing facilities there will be market forces involved and that will vary across industry and company. And for larger companies varying across offices. In my office at least 20% cycle and as such they tend to get listened to especially regarding facilities when the office moved. Even across the wider industry though cycling facilities do factor in attracting some employees and given there's generally a skills shortage then employers have to respond accordingly.

To the OP, last year your first port of call would have been a grant from the LSTF via the council (though often this will be match funded). Since we now have a backwards and short sighted government this was not continued and what has replaced it is about a quarter of the cash. Regardless any grant will likely come from the council and will vary by council so their website will be the place to go.

[Geoff.D]

........................................... Regardless any grant will likely come from the council and will vary by council so their website will be the place to go.

This isn't necessarily so. Charities have access to thousands (literally) of funding bodies (see "funderfinder.org.uk"). Each funding body will have its own area of concern (cancer research; homelessness; etc) and so the job is to filter down to the ones that support cycling facilities and the encouragement of cycling. Funderfinder helps you do this. You may end up with a list of 12 funders who will consider such a request.

These funders generally have a funding capital and make grants from the interest gained from investment. Large ones (eg Gulbenkian Foundation) may have a capital running into billions. Government bodies and commercial organisations aren't allowed to bid for grants.

Then there are much more localised funders to the charitable sector, whether they be in your region or the National Lottery itself. Sometimes a local funding trust will look very favourably upon a local charity, not least for a capital investment. They are less likely to fund salaries and/or running costs of a charity.

The key for the original poster is to get his/her Board of Trustees to adopt the idea (and this might be through one influential person on the Board, and the Board then pursues these funding bodies as a charity.

[Boyseys Mum]

Its not for employers to be subsidizing your home bills for water/gas whatever, you wanting a shower isnt their problem. Nowhere I have worked has had showers for employees and plenty of people cycled in without needing one. If you had asked about it they would have just told you no full stop.
Also how dirty is a person going to get on a commute? I think some people are being rather OTT here.

With respect, I think you might be missing the point raised by the OP. He/she isn't expecting or demanding a shower, but asking for information as to how to fund the provision of one. A crucial point is that he/she works in a unit managed by a regeneration charity, and such contexts are often open to new ideas such as providing community facilities. Indeed, providing access to the community is often within their constitution/terms of reference (eg access to photocopying; internet; training rooms; kitchen; and so on). In such a non-profit driven environment, the idea of having a shower on site is not such a no-no as it is likely to be for a commercial employer.

I understand the original posters point, I was replying to the person who was saying it was cheaper to get a shower at work.

[Boyseys Mum]

To the OP you can access funderfinder through your local Voluntary Action. Contact them and ask if someone can help you do a search.