Specialist programme

To be eligible to apply for a grant from us, your charity needs to meet all the criteria below. 

• Be registered as a charity or as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) with the Charity Commission. 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. 
  
  
• Have an annual income of between £25,000 and £500,000 in your last accounts published on the Charity Commission website. 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 charity with unrelated signatories. If the application is successful, the grant must be paid into this account. 
  
  
• 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. 
  
  
• The majority of people in positions of power (including 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 trustees, and how this is managed. 

• Not make any payments to trustees, except for out-of-pocket expenses. 
  
  
• Have a track record of delivering services, for at least one year, to people aged 18 and over. You must also currently be delivering these services. If your charity has recently merged, then this must apply to at least one charity pre-merger. 
  
  
• 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. 
  
  
• 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 of the applicant charity 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 25 January 2025. 
  
  
• Operate mainly in England and/or Wales. Most of your charity’s time and money is spent on activities in England and/or Wales and helping people living in England and/or Wales. 
  
  
• Not include religious activity as a part of the services delivered unless the charity has been established to support people specifically of that faith. 
  
  
• Meet the programme criteria outlined below 

In-depth services. We do not fund one-off support where there is no long-term relationship, for example, a helpline, one-off activities, drop-in only, or signposting to other services.     

We will consider applications where short-term support leads to continued engagement. We understand that these activities help build trust, you must also provide the next stage in longer-term support, with a plan which helps people to positively move on.     

Trusted relationships or partnerships. We know that, as a single charity or service, you can’t be expected to meet all the needs of the people you support directly. However, you should have trusted relationships with providers or agencies which can help people to overcome the challenges they face and meet their basic needs (like benefits, health care, or domestic abuse services).  

When you refer someone for support, you maintain your relationship with them and track their progress end ensure their needs are being addressed.  

Person-centred services and personal plans. We will support charities that structure their support around each individual focusing on their strengths while meeting their needs and helping them to overcome the barriers they are experiencing.  

You will work together with the people you support to understand the challenges they may be experiencing and agree on how you will help them find a way to overcome them. You will keep written or electronic records or case files of each person you are supporting, noting progress against activities. Your charity should be able to demonstrate the difference you are making through these records. 

In addition to the criteria above, when shortlisting organisations we will consider how you meet the following: 

Your approach to equity, diversity and inclusion

We know that some people face discrimination because of who they are. This might be due to their age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, poverty, social class or being rurally isolated.  

We know that we don't all have the same opportunities and therefore charities need to acknowledge this and adjust support and access to services accordingly. 

We want to partner with charities that show they: 

• understand the makeup of the communities they support and work with.
• recognise the people in those communities who experience inequity. 
• proactively reach and engage with people to address the inequity they experience. 
• are inclusive and make people feel welcomed, valued and that they belong. 

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.   

Involvement of people with lived experience of the issues you work to address 

We will prioritise charities that demonstrate that they involve people with lived experience in the leadership of your organisation and the design and delivery of your services. We will also prioritise charities that strongly demonstrate an ambition to develop their practice in this area. 

By lived experience, we mean people who are directly affected by the issues your organisation is trying to tackle.   

Your charity will be able to describe how the people it supports are meaningfully involved in decisions, internal and external influencing, civic engagement and/or governance roles. This could include information meetings, forums, or a steering/advisory group that plays a role in supporting the governance of the charity. 

Understanding of trauma and strengths-based approaches 

Trauma-informed care is an approach which is adopted by an organisation to improve awareness of trauma and its impact on an individual’s neurological, biological, psychological and social development, to ensure that the services provided offer effective support and, above all, that they do not re-traumatise those accessing or working in services. 

We will partner with charities that understand the widespread impact of trauma, triggers, and symptoms of trauma in the people they support, and potential pathways for recovery. This will also include the impact of direct and indirect trauma on staff and volunteers. 

Support will include building positive relationships by placing individual needs at the heart of your support, helping them to build support networks outside of your charity, with a focus on identifying individual and personal strengths and goals, that helps people to take responsibility for their journey of recovery, giving them choice and control. 

Organisational development support

 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 that can benefit the most from our organisational development support, and not just the unrestricted funding.   

Therefore, we will only fund charities that can demonstrate an understanding of their own organisational challenges, have the interest and are willing to invest time and effort in owning and addressing these. 

This will require the involvement of the charity’s leaders and the Trustees and could be anything from improving governance, increasing diversity across the organisation or introducing a database.  You can find out more about our approach on our website. 

It is important to us that we develop a trusted relationship with you and your charity so that we can provide the support that is best suited to what you’re looking to address. To do this we will speak to you or visit your charity a few times per year. 

Geographical location 

We want to make sure that we are funding small specialist charities across England and Wales. In our 2023 programme for specialist charities, we invested less funding in Wales, London, and the North East and South West regions of England. Therefore, to address the imbalance, where there are comparable applications which meet the programme and prioritising criteria we will favour applications from Wales and these three regions.   

We do not provide funding for the following organisations: 

• Community Interest Companies, or any other organisations that are not charities or CIOs registered in England and Wales.  
• Infrastructure or ‘umbrella’ organisations. 
• Organisations whose primary purpose is to give funds to individuals or other organisations. This means organisations that use more than 50% of their annual expenditure as grants.  
• Charities working predominantly outside England and Wales.  
• Organisations that require people to take part in a religious activity as part of the support provided, unless the charity has been established to support people specifically of that faith.
• Hospitals, health authorities, or hospices. 
• Rescue services.  
• Schools, colleges, or universities.

Why are you only funding “Specialist” organisations

We are committed to supporting charities helping people who experience complex issues that don’t have simple solutions, such as homelessness, domestic abuse and addiction. These complex issues make life much harder for people; deepening trauma, impacting their health, leading to poverty and destitution, and preventing people from being able to fulfil their potential.

We believe small, local and specialist charities play a unique role, their size and understanding makes them best placed to reach, engage and support people and make an impact.

How will you assess our approach to safeguarding?

Safeguarding is a term used to denote measures to protect the health, well-being and human rights of individuals. It is the arrangements organisations have which are aimed at preventing and responding to all forms of harm, abuse, and exploitation.

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,

• what safeguarding training your Trustees, staff, and volunteers undertake
• 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.

Do you fund faith-based charities?

Yes, we fund many charities 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 charity has been set up to support people specifically of that faith.

Where a charity 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 a charity 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 charity is only working with people who share that same faith.

We had an unusual one-off legacy payment which is reported in our last set of accounts, which takes our income over £500k. As this was a one-off, can we be considered eligible?

No. We only fund charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £500,000 in the last accounts published on the Charity Commission website.

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 charity has received funds on behalf of a network of organisations or a consortium, rather than for its own use, we may consider your charity 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 a charity 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 recognise the impact of trauma and the symptoms of trauma in the clients we support, but we know that our practice in this area could be better. Will this mean that we won’t be funded?

No. We will partner with charities that recognise the widespread impact of trauma, and the symptoms of trauma in clients, and understand the potential pathways for recovery. However, where a charity understands and recognises that it could have a stronger policy or practice, and demonstrates a commitment to improving 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 charity, we would consider that if most of the Trustees are related that the charity 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 to apply?

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.

One of our trustees is the director of a HR company who we paid to support us create our Safeguarding policy. The Charity Commission allows this, so does this still make us ineligible for your funding?

Yes, we require that there is no financial benefit for trustees in fulfilling the role as this can lead to potential conflicts of interest. We allow, and encourage, applicant organisations to pay out of pocket expenses incurred by trustees in carrying out their duties.

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