John Lyon's charity Annual Report 2024 - Report - Page 4
FOREWORD
A LOOK BACK
AT 2023/24
Last year, our grant giving totalled £15.8
million, an increase of 6% compared to 2022/23
- the highest amount we have ever granted in
a single year. This reflects our commitment
to both our Five-Year Strategy and our HSC
Covid-19 response.
This is a testament to the strength and experience of the team,
while also recognising that demand was just too great to
pause funding at all. The launch of our new Five-Year Strategy
on 1st April 2023 looked to tackle the increasing demand on
our funding by streamlining and focusing our grant funds on
education, increasing the number and value of grants over
£40K and awarding grants for longer periods – now up to five
years. As a consequence, the number of grants awarded over
£40,000 per year has increased from 80 in 2022/23 to 112 in
2023/24. Equally, 38% of new grants awarded in 2023/24 were
for at least five years with a further 39% being three years with
the option for a further two years of funding.
As in previous years, we experienced another significant
year-on-year increase (11%) in grant applications. The
introduction of the new strategy and its tighter parameters
is timely, as it is enabling us to focus on relevance and quality
to ensure sustainability of organisations for the longer term.
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JOHN LYON’S CHARITY ANNUAL REPORT 2024
Dr Lynne Guyton
Chief Executive Officer of John Lyon’s Charity
To replace the Small Grants Fund, the Charity introduced the
concept of Gateway Grants, which are part of the Open Grants
Programme, as an introductory route for organisations new to
the Charity. These introductory grants have been well received
by organisations seeking their first grant from the Charity
and over the year, we have awarded £636,000 in grants to 11
organisations that were previously unknown to the Charity.
Aside from innovations around grant making, last year
saw the Charity commit fully to investing in Research,
Evaluation and Learning. We now have a dedicated and
experienced manager focusing on impact and learning from
Home-School-Community and how we can apply those lessons
to our Five-Year Strategy. We also continue to fund and
support initiatives with other Trusts and Foundations, such as
the Foundation Practice Rating, the Open and Trusting Grant
Making Initiative (IVAR), and Propel, a long-term cross funder
collaboration through London Funders. While it’s a challenging
time to be a funder, it’s also an exciting time as the opportunity
for cross fertilisation of ideas to create systemic change for
London’s communities has never been greater.
