The strategy aims to fund, support and champion small and local charities that work towards improving the quality of life for some of Scotland’s most vulnerable people.

Donald MacKechnie, chair of Bank of Scotland Foundation said: “As a responsive and flexible funder, we’re proud to introduce more unrestricted funding and more multi-year funding through our new strategy. We know from talking to charities that unrestricted funding gives them much greater scope to cover essential costs and deal with challenges quickly and effectively. In addition, multi-year funding encourages a more strategic approach to grant-making and offers security and stability, enabling charities to plan and become more sustainable.”

The first multi-year programme under the new strategy, Empower, will launch in early February, offering real security and certainty for charities. This programme will offer a three-year unrestricted grant of £150,000 (£50,000 per annum) and collaborating with Lloyds Banking Group, the Foundation also aims to identify opportunities to add strategic value for funded charities and help them grow stronger and thrive beyond the lifetime of their grant.

Two further multi-year programmes will be launched later in the year. Energise is a multi-year grants programme supporting small and local charities that are closest to the real issues facing our communities. Available to new (and more established) charities this programme offers a two-year unrestricted grant of £20,000 (£10,000 per annum), enabling charities to use their grants in the way that helps them best.

The third programme, Enable, is an innovative, joint grants programme with the Foundation’s sole funder, Lloyds Banking Group, aimed at boosting community volunteering. Funding will be provided to charities to support projects delivered through volunteers, with Lloyds Banking Group’s colleagues across Scotland volunteering their time and skills to help deliver the projects and support the charities. This programme offers a grant of £30,000 - £90,000 over three years (£10k-£30k per annum) for volunteering projects/costs/initiatives.

Mr MacKechnie concluded: “In addition to funding from the Group, we’re excited to be collaborating with the Group and engaging colleague volunteers through our Enable programme. We know that Scotland’s charities have already enjoyed success with volunteering projects and we look forward to boosting community volunteering even more in some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged communities.”