Through our partnership with Lloyds Banking Group we nurture relationships between bank staff and small charities. In the face of significant sector-wide challenges, we know that these relationships can make a genuine difference to charities and Bank colleagues alike.
Since 2014, we have been partnering with Lloyds Banking Group to offer skills-based volunteering and other forms of support to charities. While the offers vary, each aims to apply the skills, experience, and enthusiasm of Bank colleagues to help charities grow stronger, more effective, and more resilient.
At the same time, engaging with charities helps Bank colleagues to grow more connected to the communities where they live, and work, and to better understand the needs of people tackling complex social issues.
Below you’ll find our current skills-based volunteering offers – please note these are only available to current Foundation grant holders. If you’re unsure about what offer might be right for you and your organisation, speak to your Regional Manager.
Do you want one-to-one support? Are you seeking a sounding board to test your thinking with or do you have a specific skill that you want to develop?
Bank mentors offer regular one-to-one support to charity staff, from help with specific issues including managing staff and marketing strategy, through to generic critical friend support.
Anyone in your charity can request a mentor (including Trustees or volunteers). They’ll receive regular support sessions. While we recommend that mentoring last at least 6 months, it’s up to the individual and their mentor whether they continue beyond this period. Mentoring sessions typically last 60-90 minutes.
We conduct monthly matching rounds and you’ll hear from us as soon as we have found a Bank colleague to support you. At this point, we’ll introduce you by email and supply you with some resources to help you to get the most from your mentoring. Support can be received face to face or remotely via teleconferencing, phone etc.
Note: If you opt for face-to-face mentoring, it may take longer to find a match for you. While we’ll make every effort, we can’t guarantee that a match will be found.
Request a mentor by completing this registration survey.
The support is amazing. My mentor is supporting me to become a more effective leader and in turn, is supporting our whole team to step up our practice internally.
- Saskia Ritchie, Chief Executive, Cheshire Without Abuse
Would you like to voice the challenges you are facing and tap into a range of perspectives to help tackle them? Would you like to test the waters before exploring more in-depth skills based volunteering opportunities?
Initially set up to help charities to navigate the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Charity Response Forums bring charity representatives together (virtually) with a panel of Bank colleagues drawn from across the company. For a few hours, charity representatives have an opportunity to share their most pressing concerns, test their thinking, and tackle their problem from a new angle.
You’ll be fully briefed and prepared ahead of the forum, as well as receiving notes from the session and a follow-up call from your Regional Manager to explore any further support needs that have been surfaced.
Two sets of forums will take place during 2022. Ask your Regional Manager for details.
My colleague and I found the Forum a very useful experience, enabling us to engage purposefully and meaningfully with Lloyds Bank staff who collectively brought an impressive and wide-ranging skillset and range of experiences. I would highly recommend other Voluntary and Community Sector organisations engage with this excellent initiative.
- CEO, Sefton Women and Children’s Aid
Do you have a clear and resolvable challenge that you want to tackle but require specialist input to progress?
The Skills Exchange pairs charities with small teams of Bank colleagues. Over the course of 6 months, Support Teams use their skills, knowledge, and insights to help charities tackle a thorny problem or realise an untapped opportunity. Each Skills Exchange addresses specified themes, including for example financial management, leadership, and communications. Support is flexible and can be delivered through informal discussions, workshops, reviewing existing documents or systems, or coaching.
Prior to the Skills Exchange, you’ll take part in an online prep session and a kick-starter workshop, and receive a digital toolkit.
Skills Exchange #4 will run between November 2021 and April 2022; it is no longer open to registrations. Look out for details of our 2022 programme.
We were conscious that our strategy was very short-term. We used to think in six month segments. It was wonderfully indulgent to have time dedicated to sitting and thinking – we’re often too hectic to give the really important questions the time they deserve.
- Skills Exchange Charity participant
Are you looking to diversify your Board and welcome input from individuals with commercial and corporate backgrounds?
We introduce Bank colleagues who are interested in exploring charity trusteeship to charities seeking new trustees. Once introduced, they get to know one another and determine whether they make a good fit. There’s no obligation for charities to offer a trustee role, nor for Bank colleagues to accept offers.
You’re given the opportunity to specify any preferred skills you are seeking in a trustee. And you can indicate whether you are open to being introduced to individuals who are not local to you and would carry out their trustee role entirely, or mainly, remotely.
As soon as we have found a suitable match, at which point we’ll introduce you by email.
Note: Since we can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to find a Bank colleague to introduce you to, as well as registering with the programme we recommend that you pursue other trustee recruitment avenues in parallel.
Request a trustee introduction by completing this registration survey.
Becoming a mentor during COVID-19 has been challenging and rewarding. Supporting Florentine [Florentine Bootha-King, Founder of Education Learning Support Hub] during difficult times has been a unique experience for me. I’ve learnt a lot about how charities are run and how to problem solve in completely different circumstances. Charities are facing unprecedented difficulties and I’m so pleased that we are actively supporting them.
- Kayleigh Tobbell, Chief Resilience & Security Office and Lloyds Banking Group Charity Mentor
Building on our work with Lloyds Banking Group, we’re now exploring ways of helping charities to engage with SMEs, while inspiring SMEs to support small and local charities. SMEs can facilitate ways for their staff to work with local charities beyond traditional fundraising and donations, developing long-lasting relationships that have the potential to be mutually beneficial. Find out more.
Do you want to access guidance on a topic but don’t need one-to-one support?
Bank colleagues have put together several resources that you can download from our website. By accessing the resources you’ll benefit from the specialist skills and experience of Lloyds Banking Group staff.
Current resources cover HR policy and practice, risk assessment, and cybersecurity. Click the button below to explore.
You can also tap into a wider range of resources housed within Lloyds Bank Academy.
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