Almost £1m of additional financial support to help charities through cost of living crisis

Edinburgh based charity, Bank of Scotland Foundation, has announced it is providing almost £1,000,000 of additional financial support to Scotland’s Third Sector to help charities through the cost of living crisis. This will enable them to provide more grants throughout the remainder of this year, as well as providing extra support to their current grantees.

Charities applying for funding through the Foundation’s  grants programmes are already indicating that their core cost expenditure is rising significantly and at the same time the number of people seeking support from them is rapidly growing as more and more people experience severe financial hardship, food insecurity, housing issues, redundancy, worsened mental health and fuel poverty.

All current Foundation grantees have been offered a 10% grant uplift to help towards rising costs and ensure they can continue to deliver their services. It is expected that 179 charities will share £327,332. 

As there is the strong possibility that some charities will not be able to survive the coming year, the Foundation has also increased the budgets of their remaining programmes for this year by £650,000 to ensure more charities can benefit from their programmes.

GRANT PROGRAMMES FOR CHARITIES

The Foundation has two grant programmes that eligible charities can apply to in the remainder of this year, and is one of the few funders to support applications for core costs such as salaries, fuel, electricity and heating – some of the areas hardest hit by rising costs.

The Foundation’s Reach grants programme is for smaller charities with an income of £1m or less and offers £1,000 - £25,000 of funding over one year. Charities can apply for funding for their greatest area of need whether that be project costs, capital costs or core costs.

Through their Change grants programme, charities can apply for unrestricted core costs allowing them to respond quickly to a changing environment and deploy resources accordingly. Offering significant amounts of funding, charities with an income of £500,000 - £5 million can apply for £50,000 - £100,000 per year, over 1-2 years.

Donald MacKechnie, Chair of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees and Insurance & Wealth Transformation and Strategy Director, Lloyds Banking Group said, “Many charities have spent the last two years supporting their communities through the pandemic and in doing so, their budgets have been significantly stretched. Now, with reduced reserves, decreased donations and rising costs, the financial impact on charities is severe.

"The crisis is posing a real threat to many charities and we remain hugely grateful to Lloyds Banking Group for our donation of almost £4m in February this year, without which our work would simply not be possible."