Our history
The Trust was created in 2018 – but the Covenant Fund goes back even further! It was created in 2015, with a commitment of £10m per year in perpetuity to support delivery of the Armed Forces Covenant.
A decade of grantmaking has seen some incredible impact:
Milestones in our story so far:
2015:
The Armed Forces Covenant Fund is launched – taking direction from the cross-government Covenant Reference Group national panel, which originally made decisions on which organisations should receive grants.
2018:
Government decides to register the Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust as a charity. The grantmaking team moves out of MOD
2019:
The Trust is designated as a non-departmental public body, with MOD as its sponsor department.
2020:
We distribute funds to support the armed forces community through the impact of the pandemic.
2021:
We team up with NHS England to fund an Armed Forces Advocate for veterans in acute hospitals across 16 NHS Trusts – which raised awareness of the needs of veterans among hospital teams, and improved their experiences in hospital.
2022:
The Trust is asked to take over management of the landmark Armed Forces Families Fund – Education Support Fund, on behalf of MOD, with other strands following in the subsequent years
2023:
The Trust is asked by OVA to distribute funds for its national Op Fortitude and Reducing Veterans Homelessness Fund programmes.
2024:
We move to a three-year grantmaking strategy. The landmark, HMT-funded Veterans People, Pathways and Places programme (now known as Thrive Together) is awarded a further £10m following its success in building veteran mental health pathways across the UK.
2025:
We mark 10 years of the Covenant Fund’s work.