We will be accepting new applications from eligible small and local charities up until 5pm Friday 29th July 2022. We support charities with an annual income of between £25,000 and £1 million with a strong track record of helping people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities overcome complex social issues. 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
Deadline for applications is 29 July 2022. We aim to give you a decision within four months
This year, at least 25% of the grants we make will go to charities led by-and-for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. Under our Racial Equity funding strand, we support charities where more than half of their Trustee Board self-identify as belonging to a Black, Asian or minority ethnic community.
The scope of ‘Minority Ethnic communities’ includes those that have historically experienced marginalisation, racialisation, oppression and prejudice. Therefore, also in scope is work that benefits Jewish communities, Gypsy & Traveller communities and some migrant communities.
This funding is right for you if you can demonstrate that your charity has a focus on supporting people from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic communities to overcome any of the 11 Complex Social Issues listed below and the services you provide meet the definitions in the ‘Our Programme Fit’ criteria (that they are in-depth, person centred and holistic)
We are interested in funding work that breaks down barriers to services, for example through advocacy and translation. This activity must go beyond social activities and address the complex social issues to be eligible. You should be able to describe how you breakdown any barriers to accessing services.
You’ll also be able to tell us about the needs of the community you serve, and how you’ve identified these - there’s an additional question that will appear on the application form when you confirm the focus of your charity’s work.
Unfortunately, we are unable to support purely second-tier or infrastructure organisations, nor can we support organisations whose activities are purely campaigning
You’ll also be able to tell us about the needs of the community you serve, and how you’ve identified these.
Under our Racial Equity funding 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.
Download our eligibility criteria.
Since 1 August 2021, we have been open to Racial Equity applications across England and Wales
What we mean by targeted: Nilaari Centre
To target our investment where it is most needed, we will only consider applications from charities that are delivering direct services to people affected by one of our complex social issues.
Last year, successful charities demonstrated a track record of delivering services specifically targeted at addressing one of our complex social issues.
For example in 2020, we funded the Nilaari Centre in Bristol, which provides culturally appropriate services targeted at members of its community who are affected by severe mental ill health.
It is a registered charity with over 20 years’ experience delivering social care, support, talking therapies and training, helping people to deal with mental ill health and substance misuse.
Mental ill health has a significant adverse impact on the daily lives of the people they support. The charity uses its understanding and experience of offering mental health support to its community to advocate for equality and social justice in key strategic policy forums.
Their support addresses a gap in statutory provision, is person-centred and is targeted at members of their community experiencing severe mental ill health.
What do we mean by 'charities by-and-for Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities?: The Angelou Centre
More than half of your Trustee Board should self-identify as being Black, Asian or from a minority ethnic community. We would also expect your organisation to offer support targeted at people from one or more Black, Asian or minority ethnic communities.
For example in 2020, we awarded a £50,000 grant to The Angelou Centre in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which empowers women and children to rebuild lives free from violence and abuse. Not only are they there to support black and minoritised women and children whose needs are not well met by mainstream services, but The Angelou Centre is also representative of the community they seek to serve, providing a range of services such as:
Over 95% of the staff and Trustees at The Angelou Centre are Black, Asian and minority ethnic women and they also operate Voices groups to include users’ voices at the heart of their work. They work closely with other Black, Asian and minority ethnic-led charities and seek to work with strategic partners to create systems change for black and minoritised women.
The Angelou Centre supports women and children through a wide range of services, including Independent Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence Advocacy, specialist therapeutic bilingual counselling, peer support for women escaping abuse and accommodation services for refugee women.
Our programme fit - What do we mean by
In-depth
We fund charities which work with people over a period of time. This could be weekly for 12 weeks or more, it may be regular sessions, or a person may access your charity only when they need support, but we expect that you would see them at least a few times during a year to access support which goes beyond social activities. We do not fund one off support or work where the underlying purpose is social or signposting.
Holistic and person-centred
By holistic, we mean that we expect to see a ‘person centred approach’ in your work. You’ll work with the people you support to identify and agree their specific needs, so that a plan of support can be put in place. We know that a single charity or service can’t be expected to meet all of the clients / service user needs, however you should have trusted relationships with providers of local specialist services which enables the people you support to overcome complex social issues and meet their basic needs, (like housing, benefits, health care, domestic abuse services etc.) and when you refer someone for support, you track their progress to ensure their needs are met.
Targeted
We fund work which is specifically and deliberately aimed at those affected by one of our complex social issues to help them overcome, address or manage that particular issue. We do not tend to support work that is purely reactive. You will know who the beneficiaries are, understand their needs and proactively seek to support them. We will ask whether you consult your service users regularly to ensure your offer is as relevant and appropriate to them as possible.
Supporting a journey of change
You 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.
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 development support to help build organisational capacity, improve resilience and sustainability. Whether it supports 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.
Watch our Core Funding Webinar and Q&A
Learn more about the fund, the Racial Equity funding stream, application process and eligibility for our core funding in this webinar with the Grants Team.
Still have questions? Download our eligibility criteria.
Funding deadline 29th July 2022
From 29th July 2022 we will be closed to new funding applications as we prepare to launch our new strategy in October. We will be accepting new applications from eligible small and local charities up until 5pm Friday 29th July 2022. We aim to give all charities a decision within four months.
We want to ensure all grants that are part of our 2018 – 2022 strategy Reaching Further can be made this year. This enables us to prioritise the assessment of these applications while developing our new funding programme which will open later this year.
We encourage all eligible charities to apply for an unrestricted £50,000 grant by 29 July. Alongside the funding, charities will have access to capacity building support from specialist consultants or colleagues from Lloyds Banking Group.
If you would like to hear from us as soon as our funding opens, you can sign up for our email alert here.
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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.
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