What's a vote worth?

Nationwide Building Society to link AGM voting with donation to athletes with disabilities and also introduces online voting for the first time.

Nationwide Building Society is aiming to raise a further £100,000 to help athletes with disabilities. For the second consecutive year, Nationwide plans to pay 10p for every vote cast in its AGM to athletes with disabilities via Disability Sport Events (DSE).

Over 6.6 million Nationwide members qualify to vote and this year for the first time can vote online at nationwide.co.uk, in addition to being able to vote by post or at any branch.

The Society is targeting a minimum of 1 million members to use their vote, generating up to £100,000 for DSE, a huge boost for the UK's sports people with disabilities. This initiative is one of a range designed to encourage as many members as possible to use their vote. Nationwide is proud of its mutual roots and therefore wants to encourage members to have their say and in doing so help to support athletes with disabilities to participate in competitive sport.

This year DSE would use a potential donation of £100,000 to:

extend the delivery of the successful talent identification programme aimed at encouraging aspiring paralympians;

benefit individual athletes with disabilities, helping them in their preparations to compete both nationally and internationally;

maintain the Officer post at the DSE Head Office whose prime role is to increase participation in the lead up to London 2012;

assist regional volunteers who play a vital role in encouraging and enabling people with disabilities to compete in regional sporting events;

enhance the Disability Sport Awards reception - to make this annual celebration for those who have had an outstanding year even more special for all those involved.

Commenting on the link, Graham Beale, chief executive of Nationwide Building Society, said: "I'm pleased to be able to announce that for the second consecutive year, members voting in Nationwide's

AGM can help make a real difference to athletes with disabilities via DSE. Last year we donated £100,000 to DSE, as members recognised the importance of greater participation in their own building society and backed our active support of athletes with disabilities. I very much hope that our members will use their vote and be committed this year in helping us raise another substantial sum for DSE."

Gordon Neale OBE, director of events at DSE, said: "This is excellent news and we are delighted at the possibility of a further donation of £100,000 to DSE. Following last year's campaign, which used positive images of young disabled athletes, we saw an increase of 3% in the participation levels of disabled people in sport. A donation of up to £100,000 this year would help us maintain our Officer post whose prime role is to increase participation in the lead up to London 2012 and also extend the delivery of our successful talent identification programme."

This donation will be in addition to the £1 million Nationwide has already committed to in a seven year sponsorship deal of Disability Sport Events (DSE). This builds on a five year partnership between the two organisations and will help DSE to increase participation from regional to international level in both swimming and athletics. It will help with talent identification and team selection in the run-up to the Paralympics in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.