The Bank of Scotland Foundation grants will see the organisations share almost £1.9million

Charities across Scotland are celebrating a happy new year after receiving a funding boost.

While Scottish charities are facing an increasingly challenging funding environment, 62 charities have got the New Year off to a good start thanks to a share of almost £1.9m of funding.

These are the first awards from two new grant programmes launched by the independent charity, Bank of Scotland Foundation, tailored to provide stability for small and medium sized charities who are aiming to make positive and lasting change by addressing disadvantage or social exclusion.

Nine of these charities shared £1.2m through the Foundation’s Change programme, an annual programme designed to have a large-scale, long-term, positive impact on charities and communities. Awards are made for capital costs or project costs to ensure charities can provide continued, reliable support for people across Scotland.

In addition to this, to ensure funding is reaching the most vulnerable people across Scotland, 53 small and medium charities will share £605,919 through the new Reach programme which will help charities to support people through varying stages of their lives.

This is all part of the foundation’s new five-year strategic plan, Supporting Positive Change Across Scotland, which saw four new funding programmes created, tailored to meet the needs of Scotland’s charities. The final two programmes, Invest and Advise, will be launched in 2020.

Philip Grant, chair of the foundation’s board of trustees and chair of the Scottish executive committee, Lloyds Banking Group, said: “The response to our new programmes has been fantastic and our emphasis on social exclusion and disadvantage means that our programmes can continue to help to improve the lives of many vulnerable people across Scotland addressing areas such as homelessness, debt management, reducing isolation and supporting job creation.

“As the current funding environment in Scotland becomes increasingly challenging, I’m very pleased to confirm that our new strategy sees us continue to provide core funding for charities. We know that core funding is hugely important for charities, providing stability and reducing uncertainty, and we are proud to be one of few funders to make this commitment.”