LIBOR funding supports unsung heroes
By guest contributor, Tom Traynor, Head of Research, Directory for Social Change…
The latest report from the Directory for Social Change (DSC) reveals the impact of LIBOR funding to hundreds of organisations and projects benefiting millions of people, including the Armed Forces community, Emergency services and the general public.
LIBOR Funding and Its Impact provides a detailed look at the grants and projects awarded funding from three specific LIBOR funds: the HMT LIBOR Fund, the £35 million LIBOR Fund and the Veterans Accommodation Fund. It covers £578.2 million of funding in 472 grants to 334 organisations from the three funds, which provided vital support to a diverse range of projects across a wide range of areas, including social welfare, education, mental and physical health, housing and heritage projects such as museums, monuments, memorials and other commemorations.
The report tells the story of this funding, highlighting the work of many vital projects and organisations, and it provides both quantitative and qualitative data analysis as well as the results of a survey carried out with LIBOR grant recipients, many of whom explain the impact and transformative nature of LIBOR funding in their own words. Some projects still continue to support beneficiaries, and many have experienced challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but as the report reveals, their work has had an important, often life changing impact on thousands of people thanks to this significant funding stream.
Many household names received crucial funding to support their beneficiaries, such as Help for Heroes, Samaritans, Mind and Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. High profile projects that captured the public’s imagination, such as the Wave and Weeping Window poppy installations and tour, which were seen by over 4.6 million people across the UK, received financial support from LIBOR funds, as did a number of memorials of national significance at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.
Less well know,n but no less important, projects and organisations were also supported, including: a bereavement centre at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool, which replaces an old facility with a new, modern and unique national centre of excellence that provides support to anyone affected by the death of a child; CAIS, which aims to make positive changes in the lives of people in Wales affected by drugs, alcohol and other life challenges; WheelPower (British Wheelchair Sports Foundation) to support wounded Armed Forces personnel to participate in the 2016 and 2017 Inter Spinal Unit Games; and, the Service Families Federation, to fund research and tools to support individuals and families experiencing domestic abuse.
Funded projects were indeed diverse and varied. The Mary Seacole Trust received funding to support the installation of a statue of Mary Seacole, a nurse during the Crimean War, with the statue being the UK’s first in honour of a named black woman; Glen Art in Scotland received funding to establish Bravehound, an assistance dog programme for Veterans coping with PTSD; the Scar Free Foundation was able to establish the Centre for Conflict Wound Research, whose work will have a life changing impact on the Armed Forces and civilians alike.
Grantees frequently told us how important this funding was to them, either to transform their current services, or to reach new beneficiaries. ‘LIBOR funding has had a transforming effect […] to improve the lives and wellbeing of the Veteran community’; ‘LIBOR funding was a catalyst for […] major strategic developments in dementia care’; and ‘LIBOR funding made an enormous difference to our campaign and helped to bring forward the opening of the first clinical rare diseases centre for children in the UK’. Their own insights, featured in the report, help to bring their stories to life.
Funded by the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (the Trust), which is responsible for the administration and management of LIBOR funds, the report shines a light on the breadth, depth and scope of the projects and organisations that have been supported by LIBOR funding, and illuminates the impact of this funding on its beneficiaries in the Armed Forces community, the Emergency Services and the general public. This funding, which originated from the fines imposed on a number of international banks following an investigation into the manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), has touched projects large and small, local, national and international, and both high profile and unsung alike.
Of the report, Melloney Poole, Chief Executive of the Trust said: “We are grateful to the DSC for this wide ranging report on projects funded through the LIBOR grants schemes, which explores the diverse range of projects, both large and small, that have benefited communities throughout the UK.”
You can read the LIBOR Funding and Its Impact report, in the Trust’s Knowledge Network, here.