This programme is for small and local charities and CICs with an income between £25,000 to £500,000 that are led by and working with Deaf and Disabled people who are experiencing poverty. Organisations can apply for a three-year unrestricted grant of £75,000.
Find out what to expect from this programme
We provide organisational development support with funding, read more below
We provide organisational development support with funding, read more below
Complete the short eligibility quiz below
It only takes two minutes, and you'll find out if your organisation is eligible to apply for this funding programme
It only takes two minutes, and you'll find out if your organisation is eligible to apply for this funding programme
Tell us about the work your charity does in the application form
You'll be sent a link to a form where you can complete your application
You'll be sent a link to a form where you can complete your application
Talk through your application with one of our Grants Officers
They will discuss how your work fits with the programme aim and priorities
They will discuss how your work fits with the programme aim and priorities
You will be informed of the outcome of your application by 12 December 2025
The decision making panel will be made up of our trustees and external partners from Deaf and Disabled people’s organisations
The decision making panel will be made up of our trustees and external partners from Deaf and Disabled people’s organisations
The deadline for applications is 5pm on 4 September 2025.
This programme is aimed at registered charities, CICs and CIOs which are led by and working for Deaf and Disabled people.
Your organisation will work directly with Deaf and Disabled people over the long term to support them to have more choice and control over their lives, access their rights and entitlements, and challenge the barriers they face.
We use the term ‘Disabled people’ to refer to the following groups of people: people with physical impairments, visual impairments, hearing impairments, people with long term health conditions, people with invisible impairments, people with learning difficulties, people who experience mental distress and people who are neurodivergent. We use the term ‘Deaf people’ to refer to people whose first language is British Sign Language.
We know that language is imperfect and always evolving and we understand that it can vary from person to person. We believe in the Social Model of Disability and recognise that the society we live in has been developed and designed in a way that makes life harder for Disabled people. Therefore, we have adopted language, developed by the Disabled people’s movement over the last 40 years, that reflects this social model understanding of disability wherever possible. For example, we will say ‘Disabled people’ instead of ‘people with disabilities’.
We appreciate that this can be a personal experience and people will have differing views on this. We want to acknowledge and respect people’s lived experience of disability. Please tell us if you have any preference for the language we use when we talk to you.
This year, we will make 41 grants across England and Wales.
We have a number of ways for you to check your eligibility for funding this programme.
1. Refer to the sections below, where we break down eligibility requirements, things we look for, and how to support you.
2. Download and print out the full eligibility guidance here. The guidance is also available in Welsh, which you can download here.
3. If you are still unsure about your eligibility requirements, take a simple and quick quiz.
4. Watch our pre-application webinar, where we go through our application process, eligibility, and more (with BSL translation). Download the transcript here, or access the slides here.
If you still have questions after reading the guidelines and completing the eligibility quiz, you can book a meeting to speak to someone from our team before you submit an application.
If you are eligible to apply for funding, you can start your application process by clicking 'Apply now' below. After you’ve entered your details on our sign-up form, you will be sent a link to access the application form in our online portal where we will ask you questions about your charity's work.
You can find an example of the questions in this Word document to help you prepare and draft answers. Download the large print version here.
Download an Easy Read version of the guidance here or large print here.
Watch the BSL interpretation of the guidance here.
We can fund up to £500 of accessibility support to enable you to apply for this programme, including:
Please email us at enquiries@lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk or 0370 411 1223 to let us know of your specific requirements. Unfortunately, we do not provide funding for external bid-writers.
The closing date for applications is 4 September 2025 at 5pm.
Initial eligibility criteria
Registered Charities and CIOs must:
Be registered as a charity or a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) with the Charity Commission if you are registered in England and Wales or the Index for Charities if registered in the Isle of Man. We will ask for your charity registration number at the start of your application.
Have at least one set of annual accounts showing as ‘received’ on the Charity Commission website, covering a twelve-month operating period. If you are based in the Isle of Man, we will ask you to submit your latest set of accounts.
Have a Board of at least three trustees in place who are not related to other Board members and have their names appearing on your Charity Commission records.
Or, if you are a Community Interest Companies:
Be Limited by Guarantee or Limited by Shares under Schedule 2 and be registered with Companies House. We will review your Articles of Association that show you have an asset lock in place and that you have named the organisation that will receive the company’s assets on dissolution. If there is no named organisation, this will need to be in place before your application can progress to full assessment.
Have at least one set of annual accounts filed with Companies House that show a track record of frontline delivery. You must also have filed your CIC Annual Report CIC34 for the last year. We will ask you to submit your profit and loss account for your latest financial year.
Have at least three unrelated Directors sitting on your Board who are registered with Companies House.
No Director should hold more than 50% of the company’s voting rights or have the sole right to remove other Directors.
All organisations must:
Be based and working in England, Wales or the Isle of Man. Most of your organisation’s time and money is spent on activities in England, Wales and/or the Isle of Man helping people living in these areas.
Have an annual income of between £25,000 and £500,000 in the last set of published accounts. This is total income and, in the case of consolidated accounts, should cover all entities within those accounts.
Have a bank account in the name of the organisation with unrelated signatories. If the application is successful, the grant must be paid into this account.
The majority of people in positions of power (including directors/trustees, the CEO and senior managers) must not be related nor live at the same address. Where there are related parties, we will consider the relationship, conflicts of interest and loyalty, the balance of power of the related directors/trustees, and how this is managed.
Have a track record of delivering support, activity or services, for at least one year, to people aged 18 and over. You must currently be delivering these services. If your organisation has recently merged, then this must apply to at least one organisation pre-merger.
Not include religious activity as a part of the services delivered unless the charity has been established to support people specifically of that faith.
If you provide therapy/counselling as part of your services, the individuals providing the therapy/counselling must hold registration with one of the Professional Standards Authority accredited registers for counselling and psychotherapy and your charity must have a process in place for checking their registration on a regular basis.
Have a safeguarding policy in place. We will explore what safeguarding means to your organisation, how it fits with your mission and values, and your approach to safeguarding across your organisation.
Have a Designated Safeguarding Lead/ Officer (DSL/O). This person will be accountable for your safeguarding practice and will be appropriately trained. In most cases we expect the DSL/O to have undertaken “Designated Safeguarding Lead training” This may be called as such or may be called Level 3 training in England or Level C training in Wales.
Hold Public Liability Insurance.
Be an independent organisation. We will look at any formal associations you have with other organisations, parent bodies, or group structures. We will check that the Board or Directors of the applicant organisation has full control over its work and any conflicts of interest.
If you have a live grant with Lloyds Bank Foundation, it must end before 31 December 2026.
Programme criteria
You must meet these programme criteria to be considered for funding.
1. Your organisation will be led by and working for Deaf and Disabled people.
By this, we mean that a majority (at least 51%) of your Directors/Trustees and half (at least 50%) of staff, at all levels of your organisation, self-identify as Deaf and/or Disabled people. We will prioritise funding organisations where at least 75% of your Directors/Trustees and 50% of staff self-identify as Deaf and/or Disabled people.
2. The support, activities or services you deliver must be person centred and supporting people over the long term.
Your charity will support Deaf and Disabled people over the longer term to support them to have more choice and control over their lives, access their rights and entitlements and challenge the barriers they face. Your organisation may have a main focus, such as providing advice and advocacy, reducing isolation or delivering employability support, but you will tailor what you do to meet the needs of the individual. For the needs of people that you can't meet directly, you will have trusted relationships in place with other organisations or agencies to which you refer people.
3. Your organisation will reflect an inclusive, rights based social model of disability.
This approach understands people as being disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. As well as being led by Deaf and Disabled people, the work you do must reflect the social model understanding of disability. Your work will be about supporting Deaf and Disabled people to have more choice and control over their lives and better access to rights, entitlements and opportunities. You will also support Deaf and Disabled people to meet together, get their voices heard and to challenge the barriers, discrimination and injustice they face in the wider community. Following the principle of ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’, Deaf and Disabled people will also be at the centre of designing, developing, delivering and reviewing the work you do.
Your organisation will recognise the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion and take action to address inequities.
We know that Deaf and Disabled people face discrimination as a result of their impairment or difference. Alongside this, many Deaf and Disabled people face additional discrimination on account of their age, race or ethnicity, gender reassignment, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, poverty, social class or being rurally isolated.
We want to partner with organisations that show they:
We are not looking for perfection but want to understand your approach and thinking around ensuring you support people who have faced barriers and inequity.
Your organisation will understand its organisational development needs.
We want to help charities grow stronger and more resilient so they can thrive beyond the lifetime of our funding. We will focus on charities and CICs that can benefit the most from our organisational development support, and not just the unrestricted funding. Therefore, we will only fund organisations that can demonstrate an understanding of their own organisational challenges and needs, have the interest and are willing to invest time and effort in owning and addressing these.
This will require the involvement of the organisation’s leaders and the Trustees/Directors and could be anything from improving governance, to creating funding plans, or introducing a database. You can find out more about our approach on our website.
Frequently asked questions
How will you assess our approach to safeguarding?
You must have a safeguarding policy in place. In addition to this, during the assessment conversation, we will also ask you about how this works in practice. For example:
Whether you have a staff member who is a Designated safeguarding lead. What training they, your Trustees/Directors, staff, and volunteers have undertaken.
When you last recorded a safeguarding incident.
The process you underwent to manage your last safeguarding incident.
We are also interested in how you safeguard people either as paid staff or volunteers who may have care and support needs themselves.
What do you mean by unrestricted funding?
We mean that there are ‘no strings attached’ to the funding. You can use the funds to cover any costs that further your social/ charitable purposes. This enables you to make the best use of your resources and respond to changing needs. You could choose to put the money towards your staffing costs, rent or utility bills or even put the funds into your reserves. So that we can understand the difference that providing unrestricted funding makes to small charities, we will ask you how the funds have been used as part of your monitoring, but we don’t ask you to outline how you intend to use them in the application form.
What happens after I submit an application?
Once the application deadline has passed, we will review all applications and draw up a shortlist of applications that best meet the programme criteria. If you are shortlisted then one of our Grants Officers will be in touch to discuss your application in more detail. We will inform you of the final outcome by 12 December 2025.
Does your definition of being led by and for Deaf and Disabled people include parents or carers of a Deaf or Disabled person?
No, we require the organisation to be led by people who self-identify as Deaf and/or Disabled. Whilst we appreciate that parents and/or carers bring valuable knowledge and experience, it is not direct lived experience of being Deaf and/or Disabled.
Do you fund faith-based organisations?
Yes, we fund many organisations that are faith-based and recognise them as a valuable part of society. However, we do not fund organisations where taking part in faith-based activity is part of the services provided, unless the organisation has been set up to support people specifically of that faith.
Where an organisation is open to people of all faiths and none, we expect that the services are fully accessible to all people, regardless of their beliefs, and would not fund an organisation that refused some or all services to someone because of their race, religion, sexual orientation or other protected characteristics. We will explore your approach to diversity, equity and inclusion with you during the assessment.
We do not fund organisations that specify that members or volunteers must come from a certain faith background unless there is a genuine occupational requirement, or your organisation is only working with people who share that same faith.
We are the lead partner in a network/consortium and receive payments on behalf of members of the consortium, which we cannot use for our own purposes. However, this means our income is over £500k. Can we still apply?
Yes, if your organisation has received funds on behalf of a network of organisations or a consortium, rather than for its own use, we may consider your organisation eligible depending on the details of the arrangement. Please speak to us before applying.
We have a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion, but know that we could do better in this. Will this mean that we won’t be funded?
No. We will partner with charities that can demonstrate that they are committed to ensuring that everyone who could benefit from its services can access them. However, where an organisation understands and recognises that it could have a stronger policy or practice, and demonstrates a commitment to improving in this, we may still consider awarding a grant and would provide development support to enable them to strengthen their practice.
We have seven trustees and three senior managers. Four of the trustees are related. Are we eligible?
No. Given that the trustees are the most accountable people in the organisation, we would consider that if most of the Trustees are related the organisation would not be eligible to apply.
Our Chair and CEO are related. However, we have seven unrelated trustees and two senior managers. Are we eligible?
Yes. However, at the assessment, we will review the conflicts of interest and loyalty policy, how this works in practice, and how conflicts are managed.
We have an asset lock in our CIC’s Articles of Association, but we have not specified who this is. Are we still eligible?
You will not be able to progress to assessment until you have a named asset lock in place. As we don’t want to penalise organisations for an oversight on your governing documents, if you have an asset lock in place, we will ask you to update your Articles of Association with an appropriate named charity or CIC by a set deadline.
We are a CIC limited by shares under Schedule 3. Can we still apply?
No. We only fund CICs that are limited by guarantee or by shares under Schedule 2. This is so that all of the company’s income goes towards delivering its social purpose.
We have three Directors on our CIC’s board but the Founding Director holds 75% of the voting rights. Are we eligible for funding?
No. We state that no one individual should hold more than 50% of the voting rights to ensure transparency and fairness in its operations.
Using AI to help you write your application
We support charities using AI including in the writing of applications. We understand the cost and time pressures that charities are under and so support the adoption of technology that will help charities to focus on their core mission.
However, we also want to help charities use the technology as best as possible. As such we wanted to share that we are seeing a trend of over-reliance on AI for applications. We read every single application we receive and do not use AI in any part of our decision making. It is very obvious when AI has been over-relied on and in many cases, this is not giving charities the best chance of success. These applications are often generic, do not give a clear voice to the charity and as such often underrepresent each charities own uniqueness.
Below we have outlined some of the key things to consider when using AI in grant applications.
We do not provide funding for the following organisations:
Thank you for taking the time to understand the initial eligibility criteria for this programme. If you have met the eligibility requirements outlined above, you can now start your application for funding
