Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales invested £20.6m last year to tackle local disadvantage

Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales invested £20.6m last year to tackle local disadvantage

News (UK)

The Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales announced earlier in May that it invested £20.6m in tackling disadvantage in 2009.

The independent foundation supports local and regional charities that help disadvantaged people play a fuller role in the community and, unusually, some 70% of its grants go towards core funding.

Linda Kelly, the foundation’s chief executive told Philanthropy UK, “We’re happy to recognise that small charities are often doing good work and that what they need is money for running costs rather than grants for new projects.

“We’re not against the idea of funding new initiatives but there can be a danger that small charities can get into difficulties by chasing funding for new projects which are not appropriate to their central mission.


“We’ve always worked to support local solutions to what are often national problems, like dealing with young offenders,” continues Kelly. “Around £1m worth of our grants in 2009 was channelled through our Young Offenders initiative to local groups. That reflects our belief that supporting local communities on the ground is the way to actually make a difference."

The foundation funded more than 900 small to medium sized charities involved in local community work in 2009. More than 1,800 jobs and 6,900 volunteering opportunities have been supported in the last three years throughout England and Wales.

One charity funded by the Lloyds TSB Foundation is Bridge Trust, which has worked with single homeless people in West Kent since 1991. The trust’s manager John Handley said, “We are a small, locally focused charity facing a harder time raising funds as demand for our services grows. The core cost funding we received from the Lloyds TSB Foundation means we can got out and help more people to escape the traumatic experience of homelessness.”

Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) has given £120m in the last five years to the Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales. LBG have now guaranteed that they will give the foundation £25.2 million each year until 2013. Funding will continue after that at a currently unspecified level.

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