Lloyds TSB Foundation update

10 January 2012

**this fund is only open to registered charities.

The average grant for 2011 was £25,000 to £35,000.  Demand has slowed in the last two to three months, especially from larger charities.  Smaller charities often find it difficult to compete as they don’t have recording and monitoring systems in place.

Lloyds TSB Foundation takes a monitoring and outcomes approach to funding - it calls this “changes & benefits”.  It wants to know what difference the project will make and how it relates to the Lloyds TSB Foundation mission statement.

Questions often asked at initial assessment interview:

• How are your service users disadvantaged?
• What are the specific issues for your service users?
• What difference will your project make?

Groups need to have monitoring & evaluation systems in place and be using them before applying.  Groups can decide what method best suits their group and activity - this could include (but is not limited to):

• Outcomes star
• Initial assessments and action plans
• Interviews
• Questionnaires

The foundation encourages groups to involve beneficiaries in monitoring.  An annual customer survey is usually not enough - groups need to check their survey and see if they’ve asked what different the service made (as well as if the service user liked the service). For groups that need help with setting a monitoring or evaluation system Pat Greenwood usually directs them to the following websites:

Charities Evaluation Services 
NCVO 
Triangle consulting 
Monitoring and evaluation trust

The foundation’s budget for 2012 is the same as 2011, approximately £2 million - this equates to around 70 to 80 grants.

A question was asked about groups applying in partnership - can two charities apply together?  Pat Greenwood explained that the foundation usually likes to fund just one registered charity at a time.

(Notes from a presentation by HLC at the BIG Lottery Development Worker's briefing 7 Dec 2011, Sarah Moss SBVS).

<< View all news