Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPO) Fund – UK

Deadline: 28-Aug-24

The Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales is inviting applications for the Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations (DDPO) Fund.

This programme is aimed at registered charities and CICs which are led by and working for Deaf and Disabled people. Your organisation will work directly with Deaf and Disabled people over the long term to support them to have more choice and control over their lives, access their rights and entitlements and challenge the barriers they face.

Funding information

• Successful applicants will receive a grant of £75,000, over three years (£25,000 per year). The grant will be unrestricted, so organisations awarded funding will be able to use the grant to support any costs that further your organisation’s social purpose.

Eligibility Criteria 

• Your charity, charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) or community interest companies (CIC) must meet the relevant criteria below to be eligible to apply for a grant from them:
  • Registered Charities and CIOs must: 
    • Be registered as a charity or a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) with the Charity Commission if you are registered in England and Wales or the Index for Charities if registered in the Isle of Man. They will ask for your charity registration number at the start of your application.
    • Have at least one set of annual accounts showing as ‘received’ on the Charity Commission website, covering a twelve-month operating period. If you are based in the Isle of Man, they will ask you to submit your latest set of accounts.
    • Have a Board of at least three trustees in place who are not related to other Board members and have their names appearing on your Charity Commission records.
  • Community Interest Companies must: 
    • Be Limited by Guarantee or Limited by Shares under Schedule 2 and be registered with Companies House. They will review your Articles of Association that show you have an asset lock in place and that you have named the organisation that will receive the company’s assets on dissolution. If there is no named organisation, this will need to be in place before your application can progress to full assessment.
    • Have at least one set of annual accounts filed with Companies House that show a track record of frontline delivery. You must also have filed your CIC Annual Report CIC34 for the last year. They will ask you to submit your profit and loss account for your latest financial year.
    • Have at least three unrelated Directors sitting on your Board who are registered with Companies House.
    • No Director should hold more than 50% of the company’s voting rights or have the sole right to remove other Directors.
  • All organisations must: 
    • Be based and working in England, Wales or the Isle of Man. Most of your organisation’s time and money is spent on activities in England, Wales and/or the Isle of Man helping people living in these areas.
    • Have an annual income of between £25,000 and £500,000 in the last set of published accounts. This is total income and, in the case of consolidated accounts, should cover all entities within those accounts.
    • Have a bank account in the name of the organisation with unrelated signatories. If the application is successful, the grant must be paid into this account.
    • The majority of people in positions of power (including directors/trustees, the CEO and senior managers) must not be related nor live at the same address. Where there are related parties, they will consider the relationship, conflicts of interest and loyalty, the balance of power of the related directors/trustees, and how this is managed.
    • Have a track record of delivering support, activity or services, for at least one year, to people aged 18 and over. You must currently be delivering these services. If your organisation has recently merged, then this must apply to at least one organisation pre-merger.
    • Not include religious activity as a part of the services delivered unless the charity has been established to support people specifically of that faith.
    • Have a safeguarding policy in place. They will explore what safeguarding means to your organisation, how it fits with your mission and values, and your approach to safeguarding across your organisation.
    • Have a Designated Safeguarding Lead/ Officer (DSL/O). This person will be appropriately trained and accountable for your safeguarding practice.
    • Hold Public Liability Insurance.
    • Be an independent organisation. They will look at any formal associations you have with other organisations, parent bodies, or group structures. They will check that the Board or Directors of the applicant organisation has full control over its work and any conflicts of interest.
    • If you have a live grant with Lloyds Bank Foundation, it must end before 28 August 2025.

Programme Criteria

• You must meet these programme criteria to be considered for funding.
  • Your organisation will be led by and working for Deaf and Disabled people.
    • By this, they mean that a majority (at least 51%) of your Directors/Trustees and half (at least 50%) of staff, at all levels of your organisation, self-identify as Deaf and/or Disabled people. They will prioritise funding organisations where at least 75% of your Directors/Trustees and 50% of staff self-identify as Deaf and/or Disabled people.
  • The support, activities or services you deliver must be person centred and supporting people over the long term. Your charity will support Deaf and Disabled people over the longer term to support them to have more choice and control over their lives, access their rights and entitlements and challenge the barriers they face. Your organisation may have a main focus, such as providing advice and advocacy, reducing isolation or delivering employability support, but you will tailor what you do to meet the needs of the individual. For the needs of people that you can’t meet directly, you will have trusted relationships in place with other organisations or agencies to which you refer people.
  • Your organisation will reflect an inclusive, rights based social model of disability. This approach understands people as being disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. As well as being led by Deaf and Disabled people, the work you do must reflect the social model understanding of disability. Your work will be about supporting Deaf and Disabled people to have more choice and control over their lives and better access to rights, entitlements and opportunities. You will also support Deaf and Disabled people to meet together, get their voices heard and to challenge the barriers, discrimination and injustice they face in the wider community. Following the principle of ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’, Deaf and Disabled people will also be at the centre of designing, developing, delivering and reviewing the work you do.
  • Your organisation will recognise the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion and take action to address inequities. They know that Deaf and Disabled people face discrimination as a result of their impairment or difference. Alongside this, many Deaf and Disabled people face additional discrimination on account of their age, race or ethnicity, gender reassignment, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, poverty, social class or being rurally isolated.
    • They want to partner with organisations that show they:
      • understand the makeup of the communities they support and work with including Deaf and Disabled people who experience additional forms of discrimination.
      • recognise the people in those communities who experience inequity.
      • proactively reach and engage with people to address the inequity they experience.
      • are inclusive and make people feel welcomed, valued and that they belong.
    • They are not looking for perfection but want to understand your approach and thinking around ensuring you support people who have faced barriers and inequity.
  • Your organisation will understand its organisational development needs. They want to help charities grow stronger and more resilient so they can thrive beyond the lifetime of the funding. They will focus on charities and CICs that can benefit the most from the organisational development support, and not just the unrestricted funding. Therefore, they will only fund organisations that can demonstrate an understanding of their own organisational challenges and needs, have the interest and are willing to invest time and effort in owning and addressing these.

Ineligible

• They do not provide funding for the following organisations:
  • Organisations that are not charities or Community Interest Companies registered in England and Wales.
  • Infrastructure or ‘umbrella’ organisations.
  • Organisations whose primary purpose is to give funds to individuals or other organisations. This means organisations use more than 50% of their annual expenditure as grants.
  • Organisations working predominantly outside England and Wales.
  • Organisations that require people to take part in a religious activity as part of the support provided.
  • Hospitals, health authorities, or hospices.
  • Rescue services.
  • Schools, colleges, or universities.

For more information, visit Lloyds Bank Foundation for England & Wales.