Lloyds TSB Foundation for England and Wales is celebrating after being awarded runner-up in both the ‘best grant organisation’ and ‘best grant officer’ categories of an awards event held by the South West Funding Advisers Forum ‘George’ in Taunton, attended by funding and advice organisations supporting the voluntary sector across the South West of England.
George is a network of funding advice networks covering the South West region. Its members are informal county-level funding advice networks. It links and supports these networks and has been vital in their successful spread across the region over the past four years.
As well as supporting and helping develop local networks, George aims to develop its authority as a regional voice of county networks, influencing funders to address gaps and duplication and to provide a conduit for them to directly address the voluntary sector. George cascades information to its members and helps spread good practice through networking and training events.
At its most recent conference George awarded the Lloyds TSB Foundation ‘runner-up’ in both the categories of ‘best grant-making organisation’ and ‘best individual grant-officer’ in the South West.
Chair of George, Christine Stone, commented on the awards saying, “Our members share the work – and the pains - that groups go through when they apply for grants, so they know which funders do a good job, and which don’t. The George Award is their way of acknowledging and celebrating a funder of the voluntary and community sector that thinks of the applicants as well as themselves. And I know they have always particularly the support they have received from Lloyds TSB Foundation’s Grants Manager, Trevor Smale.”
Trevor Small, Lloyds TSB Foundation Grant Manager for Devon and Cornwall, who was individually awarded runner-up as the best grants officer across the region added, “It is good to see our team recognised at what is a difficult time for all in the sector.”
To find out more about the support available from George, please contact John Skrine on 01823 250 805 or email john.skrine@creatingexcellence.org.uk.
Since the beginning of 2007 the Foundation has awarded 319 charities over £5.4 million in grant-funding across the South West of England.
