Lloyds Bank Foundation’s Racial Equity Programme Now Open for Applications

This year, the Racial Equity Programme will be providing 42 unrestricted grants of £75,000 over three years (£25,000 per year) with tailored development support to registered charities and community interest companies which are led by and working with people who are experiencing economic inequity because of the race or ethnicity.

The 2024 programme is open to small, local and specialist registered charities, charitable incorporated organisations (CIOs) and community interest companies (CICs) registered in England and Wales.

To be eligible, all organisations must:

• Be based and working in England (excluding London) and Wales.
• Have an annual income of between £25,000 and £500,000 in the last set of published accounts.
• Have a track record of directly delivering services for at least one year to people (aged 18 and over) from racially minoritised communities experiencing significant economic disadvantage. Services should support people over the long term and support people to strengthen their immediate personal or financial circumstances and then support them to make progress towards achieving their employment/career aspirations and ambitions.
• Be led by and working for communities experiencing inequity because of their race or ethnicity: at least 75% of their Directors/Trustees, and at least 50% of staff self-identify as belonging to the communities being supported.
• Be delivering culturally appropriate services that are developed in response to community needs.
• Ensure that people with lived experiences of the issues being addressed by organisation are at the centre of the designing, developing, and managing the services being provided.

In 2024, the Foundation will favour applications from Wales and Yorkshire and Humber as it invested less funding in these areas in 2023, and they have been identified as regions where racially minoritised people are more likely to be living in poverty, relative to the white population.

A free information webinar and live Q&A panel will be held on 24 April 2024 (10:30 am to 12:00 pm). Registration is required and can be done via eventbrite.

The application window opens on 27 March and closes at 5pm on 30 May 2024.

Further details can be found here: Funding from Lloyds Bank Foundation

(Although the alert says about favouring applications from certain areas, it may still be beneficial to find out more by attending the Q&A webinar – register via the link here: Webinar Registration – Zoom)