Applications open: Lloyds Bank Foundation gives £5.5m to small specialist charities

Updated 3 March 2023

This funding programme has now closed

This funding programme incorporates lessons learned from the last five years, which the Foundation recently published in its Lessons for Funder Practice report. These include how offering unrestricted grants and tailored capacity building support to small frontline charities allowed for stability and growth; how having lighter touch processes and streamlining does not sacrifice due diligence; and how relationships and collaborations unlocked new opportunities and educated the Foundation on when to lead and when to follow. 

Amazing Grace Spaces, a charity in Newport, Wales, working with people experiencing homelessness and addiction, was supported by the Foundation with a two-year unrestricted grant of £50,000. Amazing Grace Spaces Director, Caroline Johnson, explains: "Whilst the funding gave us the breathing space to plan, it was the fantastic non-financial support that gave us the skills to understand what we needed to consider and how to evaluate it – and it has completely transformed where we are as an organisation."  

Paul Streets, CEO of Lloyds Bank Foundation, said: "Small and local charities play a vital role in helping people overcome complex issues and barriers, like homelessness and domestic abuse and particularly in these challenging times. We're passionate about working with these specialist charities because their size and understanding make them best placed to reach, engage and support people and make an impact where others cannot. All of our funding for this programme is unrestricted, so charities can use it as they think best. By providing unrestricted funding as well as access to a range of capacity building support, we help small charities be more impactful in their mission to support people overcome complex issues."   

Lloyds Bank Foundation will open for this funding programme from 29 November until 3 March 2023. The Foundation will open two additional funding programmes in 2023 for small charities led by and for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, and D/deaf and disabled people. These three programmes total £11m, a part of the Foundation’s 2023 investment into small and local charities. For more information, visit www.lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk 

ENDS

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Stass Daniells; sdaniells@lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk or call 07968594549. 

Notes to editors: 

70 small and local charities throughout England and Wales will benefit from the grant. Charities tackling complex issues in eight themes are invited to apply; addiction and dependency, asylum seekers and refugees, care leavers, domestic abuse, homelessness, offending, sexual abuse and exploitation, trafficking and modern slavery. 

About Lloyds Bank Foundation 

We're an independent charitable foundation funded by Lloyds Banking Group. We work in partnership with small and local charities, people and communities, changing lives and working towards a more just and compassionate society. The needs and aspirations of people drive our work. We strengthen the small and local charities that support them and the communities they live in, and advocate for a better future. 

Through unrestricted funding, support to develop and influencing policy and practice, we help small and local charities thrive, communities grow stronger, and people overcome complex issues and barriers so they can transform their lives.