Our Impact

We’re a national charity turning compassion into action.

Our remit covers the British Isles, including the Republic of Ireland. To ensure a geographical spread of activity, our Trustees have set an objective that at least 51 per cent of the people we help live outside London and the South-East.

During the last financial year, we exceeded that with 78 per cent of our grants being made to people outside those two regions, whilst the total number of grants approved increased by 20 per cent.

Initially set up in 1827 to help older people, we now help people across a greater age range, particularly younger people through the Print Futures Awards and our partnership with The Prince’s Trust.

As well as our core functions of providing financial grants and managing our two sheltered homes, we step in to help in extraordinary circumstances through one-off grants.

During extremely cold winters, we send a £75 winter fuel allowance to our grantees who receive Regular Financial Assistance from us.

We want to have an even greater reach and impact and have committed to helping 2,000 people annually by 2017.