We support charities with an annual income of £25,000 to £1 million which are inclusive, user-led and who help people with learning disabilities access appropriate care, address social isolation and achieve their goals. We offer a two-year unrestricted grant of £50,000 alongside development support to help your charity navigate change.
Learn about the type of work we fund
Start by selecting the complex social issue your charity mainly focuses on
Start by selecting the complex social issue your charity mainly focuses on
Check your eligibility in five minutes
Enter the local authority where you carry out your work
Enter the local authority where you carry out your work
We'll send you a link to a short application form
Tell us about your charity, the difference you make and your development needs
Tell us about your charity, the difference you make and your development needs
Your application will be reviewed by one of our Grants Officers
We’ll look at how your charity fits with our criteria
We’ll look at how your charity fits with our criteria
Have a virtual meeting with one of our managers
We will advise whether or not you will progress to the Grants Panel for a final decision
We will advise whether or not you will progress to the Grants Panel for a final decision
Our applications are open all-year round. We aim to give you a decision within four months
Learning Disability
We have adopted Mencap’s definition of learning disability:
“A learning disability is a reduced intellectual ability and difficulty with everyday activities – for example household tasks, socialising or managing money – which affects someone for their whole life.”
People with a learning disability tend to take longer to learn and may need support to develop new skills, understand complicated information and interact with other people.
How we manage Regional Priorities
We recognise that there are many charities out there who would like and would benefit from our support but, like any funder, we have a limit to the resources we have available. In fact, between now and the end of 2021, we will only be able to make around 190 new grants to small charities in England and Wales, and we know there are many more than that who would be eligible to apply.
We also want to be open and transparent with charities and make best use of their time by being clear in advance which charities and areas we are more likely to fund at any time. Therefore, we have introduced ‘regional priorities’.
Regional Priorities consider local need, the prevalence of eligible small and medium sized charities, the nature of the region and the level of investment the Foundation has given to each complex social issue in that area, including our portfolio of live grants.
Whether your charity can apply to us this year depends on which Local Authority you do the majority of your work in, and the Complex Social Issue you are working to address. We review and update these regional priorities every six months.
The Regional Priorities were last amended on 18 March 2022.
What do we mean by
In-depth
We fund charities which work with people over a prolonged period (a minimum of 12-weeks). As a result, we do not fund work that is primarily one-off advice or signposting.
Holistic and person-centred
We expect the charity to use a 'person centred approach'. The individual will have been assessed and their needs identified with a plan of support put in place. Where your charity cannot meet all of an individual’s identified needs, you will need to tell us how you are working in partnership with others to address them.
Targeted
We do not support work that is purely reactive, or for the benefit of an entire geographic community. The charity will have identified a specific group of beneficiaries, will understand their needs and pro-actively seek to support them.
Supporting a journey of change
We expect the charity to be able to monitor and measure positive, outcome-based changes. These may not always be ‘hard’ outcomes, but we need to see evidence that the charity is supporting its service users to develop new skills, confidence, independence, security and/or agency.
Core cost funding
We apply few restrictions to the grants we make, instead we trust charities to spend their money how they see fit. Therefore, we do not ask for a budget, or how the money will be spent.
Developmental Support
We are able to offer charities a range of tailored developmental support to help build organisational capacity, improve resilience and sustainability. Whether it’s support to embed a new database, one of our expert consultants to help with your governance or fundraising, or even guidance on a particular finance or HR issue. We know the impact this support can have, so we are particularly keen to work with charities that can demonstrate an understanding of their own organisational development issues, and an appetite to address these.
Unrestricted funding
This is an unrestricted grant programme which means you can use the grant for any purpose that furthers your charity’s aims. For example, your Board might decide to build reserves or choose to pay for extra capacity to engage with organisational development. We do not ask for a budget or how the money will be spent.
Our Racial Equity funding strand
Under our Racial Equity strand, we are looking to support charities where more than half of their Trustee Board self-identify as belonging to a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic community.
This funding is right for you if you can demonstrate that some of the services you provide are in-depth, holistic, and targeted at a particular Complex Social Issue. You’ll also be able to tell us the needs of the community you serve, and how you’ve identified these.
Watch our Core Funding Webinar and Q&A
Learn more about the fund, application process and eligibility for our core funding in this webinar with the Grants Team.
Still have questions? Download our eligibility criteria.
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If you are still experiencing issues give our support team a call on 0370 411 1223 or email us at enquiries@lloydsbankfoundation.org.uk.
Apply for funding for Learning Disabilities
new grants to charities helping people with learning disabilities
total new grants awarded
total number of charities supported that work people with learning disabilities to improve their independence and wellbeing
