# Lloyds TSB Foundation rejects half of all grant applications

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/03/31/lloyds-tsb-foundation-rejects-half-all-grant-applications/
- Published: 2011-03-31T18:13:02+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Lloyds TSB Foundation rejects about half of all requests for funding purely because
they are not eligible and do not fulfil the Foundation’s basic criteria. For those
that make it through the initial sifting process, the single biggest reason for 
rejecting applications is because they haven’t filed their documents with the Charity
Commission.

“We do expect charities to have read our guidelines,” chief executive Linda Kelly
told delegates at the Communications for Fundraising conference in London yesterday.

Applications should include the obvious, such as demonstrating good governance, 
good planning, an understanding of an organisation’s impact on its users or beneficiaries
and good support for staff and volunteers. The good news is that the Foundation 
does fund core costs “because we believe with small charities core costs are what
they need to do their job best,” Kelly said. Lloyds TSB Foundation has seen applications
rise 24% in the last 12 months, although the amount available to give only rose 
by 1%.

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Jenny Olsen, director of communications and marketing at the Community Development
Foundation said that applicants “need to communicate the impact of what you’re going
to do and what the outcomes will be.

“We will happily give tips to organisations,” she said. “We often advise organisations
to form partnerships and then we will fund applications from these.”

What funders really want, said Clare Thomas, chief grants officer of the City Bridge
Trust, is to be inspired by people’s stories. But applications need to be as clear
as possible with no jargon or acronyms to confuse potential funders.

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