Our impact in 2024
Discover our impact in 2024, as we partnered with small charities, people and communities across England and Wales to collaboratively create a more just and compassionate society.
awarded in funding in total
small charities supported through our grants programmes
people supported by our charity partners
Read our full Impact Report here or navigate a summary of our progress below
A note from our Chair and Chief Executive
"Throughout 2024, our charity partners spoke to us about adapting to a continually shifting environment – but one in which the fundamentals of the problems they’re tackling remained stubbornly the same.
We’ve continued to strengthen the resilience of small charities through our unrestricted funding and bespoke development support. This is enabling charities to reach more people and unlock more funding and opportunities. Alongside this, we have helped build connections across the charity sector and beyond, so that local organisations can collaborate in serving people facing some of the greatest difficulties.
We were delighted to see our charity partners delivering real change as a result. Charities we support have influenced Government to commit to a new relationship with the sector, changed policy to reduce refugee homelessness, and improved the financial circumstances of as many as 60,000 carers.”
- Dame Ann Limb DBE DL, Chair of Trustees
I started my role as Chief Executive of the Foundation in 2024. It’s a real privilege to be serving small and local charities, and investing in people and communities right across England and Wales. With each charity I’ve met, I’ve seen their inspiring passion and resolve to be there for people facing complex issues like homelessness, domestic abuse and addiction.
Matt Hyde OBE Chief Executive.
Our main funding programmes
£6.75m
awarded in funding to small specialist charities working in eight key areas
£3.2m
awarded in funding to organisations run by and working for people who have faced inequity because of their race or ethnicity.
£3.2m
awarded in funding to small and local charities led by and working with Deaf and Disabled people who are experiencing disadvantage and poverty.
Strengthening resilience
In addition to our funding, we offer all our charity partners a breadth of tailored support to help build their skills, capacity and effectiveness. We commission external consultants, match charities with Lloyds Banking Group volunteers, and connect charities to one another to network and learn.
706
charities supported through grants programmes
420
charities supported with our organisational development support
428
Lloyds Banking Group colleagues shared their skills and expertise with 110 charities
“The support from the Foundation has given us the capacity to strategically look at how we can develop our network and generate income from our training. The Foundation paid for consultants who helped us identify what our unique offering is and how to position ourselves, as well as to develop our branding, training catalogue and online hub. Thanks to this, our training now generates a significant part of our income and we are less reliant on fundraising.” Read the full story here
– Dawn Hodson, CEO, Reducing the Risk, a domestic abuse charity in Oxfordshire, awarded £75,000.
Staff from Impact Family Services meet with Reducing the Risk to receive training and start their partnership
Building connections
We know that charities can serve their communities better when they work together. That’s why we provide opportunities for small charities and other local organisations to connect, share knowledge and skills, and collaborate.
Focus on communities
We continued our People and Communities work, bringing together local organisations and groups in six communities to find new ways of designing and resourcing services so that people facing complex issues can get the support they need in the ways that work best for them.
Local Collaborations
We invested £1.6 million in 16 local collaborations led by small charities to influence local change to improve access to accommodation, support for asylum seekers and refugees, and the social security system. More than 70 partners are engaged across the collaborations, including charities, community organisations, universities, and local authorities.
Amplifying voices
We equip small charities and the people they support to influence at a local and national level, as well as using our own platform to advocate for small charities.
We invested £600,000 in our national influencing programme, helping small charities influence change in three key areas to address some of the most pressing issues that are driving disadvantage in society.
Campaigning activity by our charity partner Refugee Council helped persuade the Government to extend the ‘move on’ period for people granted refugee status, during which they need to find their own accommodation, from 28 days to 56 days on a trial basis, reducing refugee homelessness.
Our charity partner Carers UK published research illustrating how carers are impacted by the earnings limit for Carers Allowance and often end up having to repay thousands of pounds. The report helped persuade ministers to raise the earnings limit by £45 a week, meaning there is less risk of carers accidently earning too much and being disqualified.
We supported the Renters Reform Coalition of tenants’ groups, advice agencies and homelessness charities who are campaigning to end section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions. The coalition has secured a commitment from the Government to outlaw this practice, providing protection to more than 9.3 million households in England and Wales that live in rented accommodation.
Championing equity
We’re committed to challenging structural barriers in society, reducing inequity between groups, and ensuring that our work is truly inclusive.
- We continued to dedicate 50% of our unrestricted funding to support charities led by and for Deaf and Disabled people and those facing racial inequity and included people with lived experience in our funding processes and decision-making.
- We commissioned New Economics Foundation to explore the distinctiveness of small organisations that are run by and for the people they serve. This research will underpin recommendations for how funders, policymakers and infrastructure organisations can better support these organisations.
- We achieved Level 2 Disability Confident Employer status. The changes we made include making our recruitment and selection processes more accessible and inclusive and introducing employee passports which provide opportunities for open conversations around workplace adjustments.
Solidarity with our partners
In the summer of 2024, anti-immigration riots took place across England, fuelled by racist, Islamophobic and anti-migrant rhetoric. Some of our charity partners were directly targeted by far-right groups, putting their staff, volunteers and the people they support at risk.
These are charities who are already under pressure and under resourced. But in the midst of crisis, these charities stepped up to provide extra support to their communities, showing their strength and solidarity. We made an unrestricted payment of £2,500 to the 162 charities we support that are working with asylum seekers and refugees or racially minoritised communities, to contribute to their unforeseen costs.
Read the full impact report
As a charity we really welcome this relationship-based model because the more traditional approach to grant-making can feel quite transactional. We’ve had a really positive partnership with the Foundation. Carlos, our Regional Manager, has been amazing to work with. He is our consistent point of contact and has supported us throughout.
Victoria Ashley, CEO, Ripon Community Link
