The Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales has revealed in its latest accounts increased support of charities’ core costs in 2011, by way of an additional £1.6m investment into its community programme.    

The Foundation has published its 2011 Annual Report, which shows that the community programme received £21m, up from £19.4m in 2010. The majority (70 per cent) of this sum went towards core costs, such as salaries and rent.

A total of £23.9m was used to support disadvantaged people overall – as well as the community programme’s £21m, £1.7m came from a matched giving scheme with Lloyds Banking Group and the remaining sum was used for grant-making support costs.

The largest share of the 754 community programme grants in 2011 went to the northwest region, with £3.4m spread over 123 grants.

A spokeswoman said that this rise shows that Lloyds TSB Foundation is continuing to give organisations money for what they really need:

“It’s important that we support core costs as that’s what charities told us they need the most,” she said. “We’ve always covered this area, and are in fact one of only a handful of foundations that do so. We’re especially looking to support small to medium charities, and being able to cover their core costs is what keeps them going.”

The full Annual Report 2011 is available on the Lloyds TSB Foundation website here.