To celebrate our 40th anniversary, and in partnership with Lloyds Banking Group and our Sister Foundations, we are delighted to announce the grants awarded to local organisations supporting people in becoming financially resilient.
09 December 2025
As we mark 40 years of supporting communities, we are proud to announce a new wave of grants totalling £2.6m—made possible by Lloyds Banking Group’s generous anniversary funding—dedicated to strengthening the financial resilience of Deaf and Disabled people across England and Wales. This initiative, part of a wider commitment alongside our sister Foundations, reflects our shared belief that everyone deserves the opportunity to be in a good place personally, regardless of the barriers they face.
We have awarded 29 local charities, most led by Deaf and Disabled people, £75,000 each over three years to sustain their work in communities to support Deaf and Disabled people through advice work, and a range of wrap-around services to provide holistic support. Alongside our grant, we will work with each organisation to identify and meet its organisational development needs, to strengthen it well after the grant has finished.
In addition, we awarded four larger grants for strategic work to support charities to make their financial resilience support more accessible, use new technology, and improve the financial resilience of women and girls who have experienced violence.
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Financial resilience—the ability to withstand and recover from financial shocks—is more than a buzzword. For millions, it is the difference between stability and crisis. Our recent joint research with Lloyds Banking Group and the other Foundations, Financial Resilience and the Role of Small Charities found that over four million people have turned to charities for support during financial challenges in the past three years. And those that did were more likely to feel financially stable than those that did not. Charities are not just a safety net; they are a trusted lifeline, especially for those living with complex needs such as disability, homelessness, or addiction.
It shows that local charities are vital, trusted, and effective—but they need more support, better partnerships, and sustainable funding to meet growing needs. The research also highlights the importance of digital inclusion, the value of lived experience, and the power of collaboration between funders, businesses, and communities.
This programme is part of a coordinated effort across all four Lloyds Banking Group Foundations—England and Wales, Channel Islands, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Together, we are investing in financial resilience work, sharing learning, and amplifying impact. Over the past 40 years, Lloyds Banking Group has donated more than £800 million to its Foundations, supporting nearly 70,000 charities.
Together, Lloyds Banking Group and the four Foundations committed £4.2m to improving the financial resilience of communities; each Foundation targeting the needs of different groups within the communities it serves.
In England and Wales, we chose to focus this programme on Deaf and Disabled people because the evidence is clear: disabled people are disproportionately affected by financial insecurity. Barriers to employment, inaccessible services, and the extra costs of disability all contribute to greater vulnerability. Our grants aim to address these inequalities by empowering organisations led by and for Deaf and Disabled people to deliver tailored, holistic support.
Our 29 grants to local charities, each working at the heart of their communities to deliver practical, people-centred support, is to sustain their work. These organisations are trusted by those they serve, offering not just advice and other support but a sense of belonging and hope.
We funded a wide range of organisations, most of which are led by and for Deaf and Disabled people and some that are information and advice charities whose beneficiaries are mostly Deaf and disabled people.
Across the 29, we’ve achieved a good balance of:
Together, the 29 deliver a wide range of services to strengthen the personal, social and financial resilience of Deaf and Disabled people; including welfare benefits advice and advocacy, money management, addressing debt, legal advice, and essential services such as food and support with energy costs.
Alongside our local grants, we have awarded four strategic grants to national organisations, each addressing a key barrier to financial resilience:
Scaling Out a New Model: Citizen Hubs
Stigma remains a major barrier to seeking support. We are funding the expansion of Citizen Hubs—welcoming spaces that combine employment support, skills development, debt advice, and social connection.
Increasing Digital Accessibility: AbilityNet
Our research found that people increasingly seek support online, but digital exclusion remains a challenge for many disabled people. We are supporting AbilityNet to deliver free digital accessibility training and one-to-one support for financial resilience charities, helping them make their services more inclusive and effective.
Improving Charities’ Efficiency: CAST and Tech for Good Alliance
Many charities struggle to meet rising demand. This grant will help financial resilience charities adopt open-source digital tools—boosting efficiency, reducing costs, and enabling them to reach more people.
Supporting Women Experiencing Violence: Women’s Budget Group and Partners
Women, especially those who have experienced violence, face unique financial challenges. We are funding a partnership that includes EVAW (End Violence Against Women Coalition), EDAC (Employers’ Domestic Abuse Covenant) and EIDA (Employers’ Initiative on Domestic Abuse) to ensure that employment and economic policies reflect the realities of victim-survivors, and to encourage more employers to improve their support, building on the work the Foundation has supported Lloyds Banking Group to develop in supporting staff affected by domestic abuse.
As we celebrate 40 years of partnership between Lloyds Banking Group and its Foundations, we are more committed than ever to building financially resilient communities and making sure that everyone is in a good place. We invite other funders, partners, and colleagues at Lloyds Banking Group to join us—sharing learning, championing inclusion, and investing in the organisations that make a real difference.
40 years supporting communities
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This report, commissioned by Lloyds Banking Group and its four charitable Foundations to mark 40 years of supporting communities across the UK and Channel Islands, seeks to better understand the role small charities play in supporting financially vulnerable people and how we can strengthen that support.
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Here, Nicole Sykes shares how small charities are making a big difference, and what Lloyds Banking Group’s latest research tells us.
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