Prosper has helped to fund an initiative aiming to raise career aspirations amongst school pupils in Sunderland through its Annual Social Value Dividend Fund.

Gentoo Group has committed a large proportion of their funding to support work between Gentoo and Positive Footprints’ Raising Aspirations programme in 30 schools across Sunderland. Over 3,320 children have benefitted from the initiative, which aims to raise pupil’s career aspirations and encourage successful careers when they enter the world of work.

Louise Bassett, Chief Executive Officer at Gentoo, said: “We are delighted to work closely with our procurement partners, Prosper and give back to our communities via their social value fund.

“We’ve worked with Positive Footprints over the last three years and it’s great to see the impact it has on the children. We’re really looking forward to seeing how the additional funding can inspire the future generations over the course of the next year.”

The initiative are looking to move into secondary schools in the future, where pupils already preparing to enter the workplace will benefit greatly.

Prosper’s Chief Executive Officer, Rod Brasington, commented: “We are delighted to see our continued partnership with Gentoo is having such a positive impact on the next generation. It is important to us that we are able to give back to the communities our landlord partners operate in though our Annual Social Value Dividend Fund.”

Prosper issues funding to landlord partners annually from its Social Value Dividend Fund. The amount received is based on the procurement spend with Prosper of each landlord partner enhanced by the addition of a proportion of any surplus Prosper generates. The landlord is then free to allocate their funding to Social Value initiatives which best support their communities.

To date, the total amount of funding issued by Prosper to its landlord partners is now in excess of £2.7 million. Once Social Value Calculator measures are applied, this equates to approximately £20 million of reinvestment in local communities.