Chair's review of 2022

Welcome to my second Chair’s Review for the Lloyds Bank Foundation for the Channel Islands as we reflect on 2022 and look forward to our aims, ambitions and objectives for the year ahead.

Underpinning all our work is our continued pledge to support charitable organisations which help people, especially those who are disadvantaged, supporting them as they help islanders play a fuller role within their local communities throughout the Channel Islands.

In 2022 we provided funding of £686,214

- Grants totalling £612,851 (2021 which included 35 year anniversary grants £1,071,643) to the following charities:

- Guernsey Community Savings, Guernsey Mind, Guernsey Voluntary Service, and Relate Guernsey.

- Caritas Jersey, Dementia Jersey, Jersey Action Against Rape, Jersey Recovery College, Kairos Art, Macmillan Cancer Support Jersey, The Shelter Trust Jersey, and You Matter.

• Additional funding to active grant holders (as at December 2022) to help with the impact of cost of living worth an additional 7.6% of their grant value at a cost of £61,375.

• Matched giving to local charities of £11,988 (2021: £5,169).

We are always incredibly proud and privileged to be able to provide funding year after year, thanks to the generosity of Lloyds Banking Group. At the end of the year, we were delighted to receive a further £61,400 in funds from the Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), to give to our active grant holders in recognition of the cost of living challenges facing charities right now. We operate with complete independence from LBG but this is a real example of the support we enjoy from Group Executive as well as our local bank colleagues.

Through this engagement with our work, we have continued to offer developmental support including our mentoring programme, charity response forums and the skills exchange. We have mentoring relationships with 11 charities to really maximise impact beyond pure funding. This continues to illustrate the unique offering from the Foundation.

At the end of the year, the Foundation held two evening receptions in Jersey and Guernsey, which enabled us to show-case the work of a charity in each island, demonstrating the benefit of their Foundation grant but also, perhaps more importantly, emphasising the added value of having a mentor from the Bank working alongside them. We were joined by charities, Foundation trustees, Lloyds Bank colleagues, local politicians, and other funders, encouraging interaction, sharing learning and networking. We plan to run these events again in 2023.

As part of our skills and training for charities and after a two year gap due to Covid, we welcomed back our annual seminars focussing on Engaging with Lived Experience. We were delighted and privileged to welcome the inspirational Paula Harriott, Head of Prison Engagement for the Prison Reform Trust as our keynote speaker. These seminars were packed with charities and interested parties in both islands, seeking to learn more about lived experience, eager to find out how they could incorporate lived experience into their organisations and the value that would add. The feedback and comments were overwhelming. So much so that our 2023 seminars will expand on last year by exploring the practical steps charities can take to achieve their vision for lived experience leadership. We are pleased to announce that Paula will join us again to share her knowledge and experience and to guide charities in their own lived experience journey.

Collaboration and partnership with States and the third sector will always be a focus and the Foundation will continue to encourage more co-operation and shared vision. To see so many politicians at our events is encouraging. Of course, we recognise that will always be a work in progress but it is never more important than now, with charities facing ever more onerous challenges in resources, rising costs and expansion of services.

Closer collaboration with other grant givers is key, sharing intelligence, understanding on need, and emerging need, where there are gaps in services, where funding requests are coming into grant givers helps to ensure that funding is distributed where it will have the greatest impact. Where charities require significant funding, a single conversation between groups of grant givers and charities is a more efficient approach and has resulted in co-funding arrangements. As a group of grant givers, we have a more co-ordinated and stronger voice with the islands’ governments.

We are as ever enormously grateful to our sole funder, Lloyds Banking Group for their ongoing financial commitment and wider support offered to the Foundation and charities in the Channel Islands. We are also grateful to the support of Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales helping to ensure the smooth running of the Foundation’s back-office functions.

At the very heart of the Foundation, the Board recognises the huge contribution in both experience and expertise from our Executive Director, Jo Le Poidevin. She is the eyes, ears and engine room of the Foundation. This is an opportunity to thank her, on behalf of myself and all the Trustees for her support and guidance over the past year.

We cannot perform our role as a Foundation without a spectacular Board and I send a personal thank you to all the Trustees who work diligently, providing knowledge, wisdom and passion to the good governance of the Foundation and our grant giving process. A special thank you to John Henwood whose six years’ exceptional service to the Board ended in 2022. And a fond welcome to David Pirouet who has recently joined us.

The Foundation launched its three-year Strategy for 2023-25. The core objectives for 2023 will again focus on delivering support to organisations who can make a real difference with an emphasis through our grant programme on salaries and core funding. Against a backdrop of volatile financial markets, we will always be watchful of our financial stability, with funds given where the need is greatest, where real impact can be measured. We will continue to provide a voice in our community for those most vulnerable and disadvantaged, working with other grant givers, organisations and Government in this regard. Our strategic partnership with Lloyds Banking Group will continue enabling us to offer charities developmental support to complement our core funding. As a leading funder across the Channel Islands, we will continue to focus on our core work as well as working in partnership with those with shared ideals and these will be the main aims for the Foundation for the year ahead.

Philippa Stahelin
Chair of Trustees
31 March 2022